Motivators and Mentors

Motivation, as defined by Princeton University (2010) is, “the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior” (para. 1). There are different types of motivation and different people require different methods to desire to act.

Great historical motivators have influenced change, in minds and in hearts. Motivating people to do things that they are unwilling or uninterested in doing is a great challenge. This is what it takes to be a pivotal leader. Great leaders must constantly evolve their strategy in order to motivate different types of individuals for different types of reasons. We will look at a few leaders who are praised for their motivating tactics. This paper will list some of their strengths and some weaknesses, critique their writing style and finally compare their motivation methods to the greatest motivator of all time, Jesus Christ.

The first assessment will be the essay written by Ralph Lazarus entitled “The Case of the Oriental Rug”. While the essay may not be inspirational with phrases that make you want to go out and seize the day, it is however inspirational in the form of information.

Lazarus uses stories of his past business experiences to teach lessons to business men and women of today. His feeling is that there is a lack of people skills within the newer generations of business students. He makes his point by giving an example of his friend that had all the qualifications of a great business manager but lacked the ability to lead.

Lazarus continued the essay with more stories, but of successes. Every story proves each of his points that he tries to make. In each story of success it...

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... Jesus never used sarcasm, rudeness, violence, or evil methods to motivate people. He never displayed or employed negative motivation. He would have people question themselves and their actions. However, he would not look down on them. He encourages and loves and therefore, he is the best motivator of all time. He left the Earth long ago but still has

millions of faithful employees. While it may be unfair to compare flawed human leaders to the purest leader of all time, but he is the perfect example and humans have so much yet to learn.

References

Krass, P. (Ed.). (1998) The book of leadership wisdom: Classic writings by legendary business leaders. New York: Wiley

Princeton University. (2010). WorldNet search. Retrieved July 6th, 2010 http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=motivation