Motivational Interventions: Shaping Values and Behavioural Traits for Leadership Development

By Dr Kumaran Rajaram

“Grit is determination and perseverance towards crystal focused goals with a foresight. It is having stamina, not a short burst of energy. Grit is believing in your dreams, working hard and smart to make that future a reality. Grit is like running a marathon not a sprint with a self-moderated speed that would sustain one for the arduous long haul”

– Dr Kumaran Rajaram

The values and competencies that shape the character of future business leaders truly matter. Character is the culmination of habits, resulting from the ethical choices, behaviours and attitudes of an individual that eventually crystallizes as a set of desired competencies. It is the “moral excellence” an individual exhibits when no one is watching. Character education includes attributes like value clarification, citizenship, and moral guidance. It addresses the cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects of education and utilizes every niche within the educational ecosystem to guide, influence, and shape the learners’ character development. The goal of character education is to help leaders make good, independent decisions based on principles and values, not to have them mindlessly follow a list of directives. 

Every day we hear many voices of complaints and grievances of not able to achieve their desired targets set in one’s work and even personal life, or successful individuals getting involved in unethical or morally wrong activities. But what are some of the character attributes and competencies that leaders must acquire to strive towards in developing themselves holistically to achieve their desired goals? In short, these character values and competencies can be remembered using the acronym ‘P-F-A-T-C-C-C-D-S’.

Perseverance

Life is full of ups and downs. One is only able to move forward with “re-charged” energy and continually new aspirations with faith in achieving them. This strength must be nurtured within oneself to continually move forward by fighting against the odds and challenges that come along the individual’s pathway to attain his/her goals. So, it is imperative to inculcate toughness and how to work towards not easily accessible targets during the learning journey, so that it enables future leaders to go through this process to experience first-hand of the toughness which nurtures the traits of being persevering.   

Focus

Being focused means the ability to pay attention to one’s plan of taking control of the everyday happenings that life puts in one’s path. Although there will be times when the plan does not go in line with what is to be expected, however, in such instances, the ability to have concrete thoughts in dealing with such issues may be useful. One should be able to achieve anything with a crystal focus mindset glued towards the vision set. With focus, one can know clearly of what is expected of, hence this strategise and put forth the necessary actions to strive towards that.

Attitude

Positive attitude determines one’s altitude. The ability of one to view things in a specific manner matters alot as that perception affects the actions to be taken and how people react to situations respectively. When one has the ‘never-say-die’ attitude, it makes the task at hand to be focused and achievable despite challenges and unexpected occurrences. The positive vibes should be consistently created to have the conditioning facilitated. The outlook of any issue is crucial as this relates to the basis of one’s attitude by and large.

Time-Management

In today’ context, effective time management is essential to achieve the desired mission with tight timelines. The ability to be disciplined with good time-management enables one to have cutting-edge outcomes in terms of efficiency and productivity. This competency is to be nurtured with the ability to handle multiple projects with tight deadlines or even perhaps prioritising the tasks in terms of its completion with quality deliverables.

Change Catalyst

The external environment is embedded with rapidly evolving changes, hence one must have the ability to be adaptable to varying situations and embrace the new changes that come with challenges in the positive outlook. It is also imperative to keep abreast of the latest developments, changes and keep-up to those new expectations. The trait to be adaptable and being comfortable with continuous changes is something that needs to be trained and conditioned. This competency will assist one to manoeuvre objectively in achieving the goals, and addressing the needful changes required.

Commitment

Commitment enables one to be focused and have his/her efforts in the right direction to achieve the desired goals. This attribute makes one to be responsible and disciplined in the tasks to be attained. This competency becomes a valuable trait as without commitment it only leads to empty promises and unfulfilled targets. With high level of commitment come quality outputs that only resemble hard work and tireless efforts. When this trait becomes part of one’s character, it becomes invaluable.

Integrity

The fundamental long-term success of any respectful and trustworthy individual is be linked to the character trait of integrity. Especially when one has the power, autonomy to perform and execute his/her tasks, the fundamental element that decides the action flow lies on one’s personal integrity. Importantly, others want to deal or work with another person who they trust. A simple test to reflect on whether you are doing things right for the right reasons – just ask yourself if you are doing something which is acceptable when no one is observing, monitoring you as well as when many people, including the direct supervisors are around.

Confidence

Any tasks undertaken with confidence enable one to strive towards it filled with much positivity. Thus, moving towards the goals becomes a much smoother journey. Performing the tasks repeatedly enables one to build confidence in dealing with them. In order to lead, winning over others’ trust and respect through confidence is fundamentally vital. With high confidence, one can overcome challenges and work around those with a mindset of being a solution-provider.

Determination

One must be filled with determination to give one the inner strength and belief that the goal could be achieved. Being determined allows one to fight against the odds and strive with enthusiasm.

Strength 

Strength gives one the ability to fight against the different hurdles and face the challenges coming forth. Being glued in achieving the goals with crystal clear focus allows one to strive ahead with much positivity.

Ultimately, to be an effective leader, one must be nurtured with values and competencies in shaping the character to deal with the evolving and complex issues with intellectual, emotional and cultural intelligences.