"Companies that retain, reward and motivate their people outperform the FTSE All Share Index by nearly 20%" - Survey of Best Companies, Sunday Times, 2004

Leading in turbulent times is placing motivation firmly back on the leadership agenda. Todays leaders want to understand how their leadership style affects motivation - and ultimately the delivery of business performance.

Motivation is complex - influenced by perceptions and strengthened by multiple factors. Individuals are also motivated by different things at different times in their lives. Leaders need to understand this complexity and know that what motivates one person will not necessarily motivate another.

Motivation is back on the leadership agenda

Classic motivational theorists such as Maslow and Herzberg have given leaders useful pointers:

• motivators at work are not the opposite of factors that de-motivate
• reducing dissatisfaction around the job does not motivate - leaders must do more, such as provide a sense of achievement or recognition
• paying more money sometimes motivates when seen as a tangible achievement and recognition measure.

From the 1960s to mid-1980s leaders believed they could motivate employees to higher levels of productivity. But the advent of looser business structures, remote working and the shift from a paternalistic style has made leaders complacent. With recent structural business changes comes the belief: You cannot motivate other people.

But motivation is back. With the drive for more growth in these uncertain times, leaders are looking for ways to help increase company performance.

The importance of leadership in motivation

An overly controlling style de-motivates and results in poor delivery. Although intended to boost performance, this style is perceived as lacking trust. Eventually individuals lose their motivation to make decisions or act, which leaders see as proof of poor performance and so the cycle is reinforced. Alternatively, leaders can treat individuals as good performers and use a more motivational style allowing greater discretion. Praising outputs, asking opinions and giving interesting assignments, for example, in turn reinforce a motivational cycle.

The book Leadership and Motivation (2006), comes from leadership guru John Adair of Action-Centred Leadership fame. Adair became leadership training adviser at the royal military academy, Sandhurst, and continues to advise the military on leadership development.

He is clear that leaders cannot motivate others unless motivated themselves - motivation is caught, not taught, he says. His 50:50 rule states: 50 percent of motivation comes from within and 50 percent from a persons environment, especially their leader. This means the link between leadership and motivation is strong.

When Toyotas president was asked why he spent so much time out of his office when his British counterparts moved paper instead, he replied: Its very simple. We dont make Toyota cars in my office. Theres no such thing as an invisible leader - even in the virtual world - and great leaders have a presence everywhere. The best are ruthless at delegating, which frees them to motivate others by involving them in decision-making.

Participative or directive leadership styles?

Most people know of the leadership continuum where a leader makes decisions while the team makes none (directive) through to the opposite, participative end where the team makes all the decisions. But which style to choose?

Increased information access is allowing people more participation in decision-making. The USAs military, for example, now provides troops with battlefield information - formerly only known by commanders. Once troops learn to interpret this information their decisions lead to greater battle successes.

People are motivated when they feel at the centre of things rather than the periphery - and so leaders are told to be participative, not directive. As a rule, experienced team members need less direction and in our dynamic, networked organisations, individuals must be self-managing. The aim then is to motivate people to become self-directing business participants.

A participative style also works well in performance target conversations. Simply assigning targets to individuals or teams means the leader has lost the game motivationally and will probably see a cynical perversion of performance management as individuals circumvent the system - a response when leaders are too directive.

Motivation for the new millennium

Motivation theories, considered old hat by many leaders, have been around for more than 40 years. Recently these theories have slid off the leadership agenda through the belief that people should be totally self-motivating.

Increasingly however, leadership training courses and development programmes are putting motivation centre-stage. We are all motivated by the people around us - and motivation is increasingly important in these uncertain times to help people perform at their peak.

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