Unfortunately, however, the demands and reality of day-to-day management are often far apart. If managers are not enthusiastic, courageous and experienced with integrity, performance and/or relationship trust in leadership is unstable. A positive exemplary leadership has just as lasting an effect as a negative exemplary leadership on the self-motivation of the employees and consequently on the behavior of the employees.

Maintaining or increasing the willingness to perform and the performance of the employees is the first management task. In many companies, however, management and leadership are confused. Management refers to the professional accomplishment of tasks, leadership to the employee’s own motivation. And this depends directly on the superior’s behavior.

Leadership means to positively influence the willingness to perform or self-motivation and the job satisfaction of the employees.

The most important management instrument with regard to employee motivation (willingness to perform) is the manager’s own role model. All other so-called “management techniques”, on the other hand, are ineffective when it comes to the permanent self-motivation of employees. Those who, as managers, do not know this or do not sufficiently consider it, are surprised at the lack of results and the ineffectiveness of their own management measures.

Especially in technical branches, i.e. where development and production take place, it is usual to promote employees when they have proven their professional competence. Not enough importance is attached to leadership competence. The consequence: Executives in the above-mentioned technical sectors fail above average due to a lack of knowledge and action competence in their management tasks. This is followed by frustrated managers and executives whose willingness to perform is average.