Motivation and Inspiration

In a couple of hours I am giving a talk entitled The Remarkable Leader’s Role in Motivation.

Let me give you the crib notes here.

We can’t motivate anyone.  Motivation is internal and a choice.

So as leaders our role is to recognize that we can’t motivate (at least not for very long).

What we can do is inspire others.  Because inspiration is external and is our opportunity as a leader.

Being able to effectively inspire involves us using a variety of good leadership skills, but it is as much about our leadership influence as it is anything else.

These facts are why I try to post a leadership inspiration for you each Friday (though I haven’t as much with the Best of Leadership Blogs promotion throughout July).

In order for us to lead successfully we must inspire others to act, whether through our leadership communication, coaching and mentoring, observation, questioning and more. 

Most of all we must remember that inspiration is always temporary.

So we must continually refresh our personal inspiration level, and as leaders we must continually do the same for others –  inspiring them to move towards the group’s goals and create the changes we wish to see in the world around us.