Motivating people

If you ask someone to draw you a conservationist, they will probably draw someone in the middle of a remote natural area: passionate and driven, yes – but probably also grubby, tired and far from family and friends. Or they may draw a picture of that other stereotype – stressed-out and hunched over a laptop late at night, desperately trying to get a funding application in whilst emails and requests pile up.

As a leader, an important skill is to be able to motivate and energise people to work towards their goals. But how do you achieve that, particularly in a conservation setting with all the particular challenges that brings?

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Identify the factors most likely to create dissatisfaction with a job
• Identify the factors most likely to create job satisfaction
• List actions that could be used to address the most common demotivating factors in conservation
• Create an action plan for an individual you would like to motivate