Home topics news News News Fear or aspiration – what’s your motivator? Arndria Seymour November 11, 2011 In my September blog I asked you to consider if you were a good leader. There is so much information at our disposal today you could consider that there is no excuse for poor leadership in organisations. I, like many others, have experienced some pretty shocking excuses for ‘managers’ during my 30+ year career. The question I constantly ask myself is why? What drives these black lagoon dwelling creatures? Fear or (delusional) Aspiration? I have no doubt in my mind that some senior mangers take great delight in stamping on some of their direct report’s faces to make themselves feel more superior. Astonishing to witness let alone experience in this decade. A high level of self esteem and self worth goes a long way and is a clear differentiator between good and great – inspirational leaders. I read an interesting article yesterday called “Fire, Snowball, Mask, Movie – How Leaders Spark and Sustain Change” by Peter Fuda and Richard Badham, which was sent to me by a CEO friend of mine, who had participated in the research. Extract is available from http://hbr.org/2011/11/fire-snowball-mask-movie-how-leaders-spark-and-sustain-change/ar/1. I wanted to understand more about it so I tracked down a white paper called “ Leadership Transformation: Creating Alignment from the Inside-Out” by Peter Fuda. These resources outlined 7 metaphors for leadership transformation, which were designed to ‘promote meaningful reflection and purposeful action.” The 7 are: Stephen Covey (1989) in