How to Be a Leader Who Inspires

Posted May 19th, 2010

High performance teams have high performing individuals.   A leader of a high performance team is one who inspires, teaches, develops, and coaches.   As we consider each of those leadership functions, what does it take to be a leader who inspires?

I believe there are seven steps to consider:

1. Point to a greater purpose that energizes people.
2. Promise your genuine involvement, and fulfill your promises.
3. Provide general direction, then allow the team to plan and implement.
4. Present the message genuinely, using a variety of media.
5. Prevent poor results by clarifying the goals and roles.
6. Praise good results and celebrate the accomplishments of the team.
7. Prepare next steps, knowing that inspiration is a process, not a project.

The Latin word “inspirare” means “to breathe into.”   For a leader who wants to breathe the challenge to high performance, let’s modify the definition:  to fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence. We want to move people to action, and action at an exalted or higher level.

When John F. Kennedy said the United States would put a man on the moon before the sixties were over, that was a greater purpose.  A pipeline company which says “no errors, no spills, no leaks, no accidents,” has a great challenge, if it has a record of errors, spills, leaks, or accidents.  Since every person on the team is energized by different things, the inspiring leader needs to connect the purpose to the individual.

Your people need to hear how you are involved in achieving the purpose.  Then they need to see that involvement regularly.  This is the “walks the talk” stage.  There is nothing more inspiring than a leader who makes and keeps promises.  The leader who makes and then breaks promises is defeated when the first promise is broken.  One of the reasons leaders don’t promise is that there is little intent to keep the promise.  No wonder it is difficult to inspire.

Has someone ever given you a challenge, and then trusted you to figure out how to meet the challenge?  That is inspiring.    A leader wants to provide a general direction, and then should only provide enough guidance so the team or individuals can create and implement a plan.  The micromanager does not inspire.

A leader communicates often and well.  In my operational excellence work, a colleague told me that I said the same thing everywhere I went.   That is true, because while the message was tailored to the audience, the message was similar.  “No errors, no spills, no accidents” is a good mantra for operational excellence.   It was presented genuinely and personally.  The purpose of high performance teams is the same, whether it is 1990 or 2010 or any time.   Craft your message, deliver it often, and tailor it to the audience.   And use a variety of media, excluding e-mail and PowerPoint as much as possible.  No one has ever been inspired by an e-mail!

Clarity is the process of making something transparent.  When the team can see the purpose, experience the trust, understand the goals, know the roles, and perform the necessary actions well, good results can be obtained.   This is the most difficult step, yet ultimately the most inspiring and rewarding for the team and the leader.  Just like hazy product causes quality problems, cloudy goals and roles cause confusion and frustration for a team and a company.   Transparency builds trust and commitment.

How often does your team achieve good results?   Do you look at each day, or each month, or each quarter, or each year?   Most of the team members perform repetitive work, doing similar tasks over and over again.  This often dulls the self-appreciation of the individual’s contribution to the team purpose.    Every day should be celebrated, or maybe every shift for some workers.  A celebration once a year with executive leaders is appropriate; a regular celebration with an inspiring team leader is better.

If a leader wants to inspire all the time, it is a continual process.  Breathing takes place regularly, doesn’t it?   If we are to breathe life into the team regularly, then we need to think ahead and prepare next steps.   Once a leader inspires team members a few times, you will find that others begin breathing life into the team.  That will be inspiring to you.

Go forth and inspire!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Leadership.