Aspire - Leadership for the future

Why Should Anyone Be Inspired By You?

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, become more – then you are a leader,” said US President John Quincy Adams.

Had John been more blunt (and less eloquent), he might have said, “If you’re not inspirational, you can forget calling yourself a leader”.

Inspiration Boosts Energy, Boosts Productivity

The latest Aspire 2010 Leadership Report has found that the ability to inspire is one of the must-have characteristics of New Generation leaders. Research by Gallup Polls in 2009 confirms that the ability to inspire others is critical to performance in today’s economy. Followers need “hope for the future” alongside trust, compassion and stability in order to be committed and engaged to succeed in their organization.

And yet “being inspirational” is one of those frustratingly intangible measures. Typically, leaders know (or are told) they need to work on it but often aren’t sure how.

So why must inspiring yourself and others be so high on your agenda as a leader?

First – because if you yourself are inspired, you will automatically be more inspiring to others.

Second – because an inspired team is an energized team; and an energized team is a more productive team.

If you have managed to capture hearts and minds, excite and engage people, they will in turn feel more motivated and energized to take action. In our fast-moving world where productivity is king and time is endlessly squeezed, focusing on increasing energy levels (your own and your team’s) is a lot smarter than trying to expand time.

As Annie Perrin, Senior Vice-President at The Energy Project, puts it: “Time is finite – energy is not”. And feeling inspired is the biggest energy booster going.

The Y-E-S! of Inspiration

So why should anyone be inspired by you?

There will be lots of reasons already (do a stock-take right now).

And if you want others to be even more inspired by you, focus on getting to Y-E-S! (You, Easy, Sustained):

* You

It’s amazing how many leaders rush into “trying to inspire” others when they’re feeling pretty flat themselves.

In order to inspire, first YOU have to be inspired – it’s contagious. If you don’t feel inspired, no-one else will. Your focus needs to be on “being” inspiring rather than on “doing” inspiring.

Prioritize making time for self-inspiration. Playing to your strengths and passions and doing what you believe in is a sure-fire way to feel inspired. Include activities that stimulate fresh perspectives and creative thinking: read, attend a speaking event, go for a walk at lunchtime, volunteer in your organization’s pro-bono projects (or create one yourself)… whatever it takes. Notice what gives you energy – and expose yourself to more of it.

Think about where it is that you want to see change, where you will have to take a risk or stick your neck out in order to be inspiring to yourself and to others.

Are you clear about what inspires you, and what inspires your people?

It’s about being alert to the differences between you and them, too. For Jane Chesworth, former Chief Operating Officer of the world’s leading art business, Christie’s International, “What inspires me in business is a major challenge – to attempt things in the business that have never been done before. I love that!” But, she goes on, “I also recognize that other people in the business may be scared of those plans and ideas and are not inspired by the same thing as me”.

If you’ve got to convey a difficult message, or rev your team up to deliver a project, think first about what inspires you about it. Even in the toughest situation it is possible to find something. If you have to make redundancies or pull your team up sharply on underperformance, you may be able to find inspiration in the longer term vision of having the right people in place or of the business surviving and thriving.

When Jane Chesworth first arrived at Christie’s, she was clear what inspired her – the vision of significantly increasing the value of the business through sales growth, and through introducing a more cost-conscious and profit-focused culture.

“In one of my first presentations to the senior executives I said that, in order to survive and grow, we had to address risk management, cashflow, profits… as I went on, I thought, ‘Am I just losing everyone?’ But afterwards, people came up to thank me, saying that it was the first time they’d been treated like adults, without sugar-coated messages.”

By keeping in mind what inspired her (the vision of a successful, profitable company), Jane was able to deliver a powerful and inspiring message, where she not only told her audience how it was, but also told them the way out of it, giving them hope for the future.

* Easy

Simple, powerful words and images inspire.

Complex corporate gobbledegook does not.

People – however intelligent – are most inspired by real, EASY messages. Clearly this does not mean that everything you say must be easy to accomplish, easy to accept, or dumbed-down. But it does mean that, in order to inspire, you need to make things easy to understand.

“Be brave, be bold and be different – and if any one of you are told ‘it can’t be done’… just say ‘up yer bum!’”, advised Body Shop Founder Anita Roddick. Some of the most inspiring speakers say it like it is, and it doesn’t matter if they fall over their words – what is inspiring is when they are delivered with integrity more than with polish.

So become a great translator – someone who is able to convert what Drayton Bird, former Vice-Chairman of the world's largest direct marketing agency, Ogilvy & Mather Direct, calls “the tidal wave of high-sounding tripe [that] people come out with” into language that your people truly understand.

He cites a research report revealing 26% of executives admit to using expressions they don't understand in meetings, and a recent email that urged him to “leverage each others strengths” which – he acidly remarks – “means help each other and has an apostrophe missing”.

Ann Convery, author of teleseries Speak Your Business In 30 Seconds Or Less™, calls them “unhearable words”. What unhearable words can you delete from your conversations?

And of course it’s not just about words – it’s about making strategies, projects and plans easy to digest too.

While a Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Jane Chesworth was seconded for two years to London’s Takeover Panel, which regulates all takeover activity for public companies in the UK. “We would meet with senior investment bankers and lawyers who would outline plans for extremely complex takeover transactions. Everyone would spend time trying to understand what would need to happen to make these deals work. In my experience, they never got off the drawing board!” she recalls. “Keeping things simple is one of my mantras. Take one step at a time. Don't try to jump ahead 5 steps at once.”

To convey the importance of working together and everyone’s role making a difference, Jane used to tell her people at Christie’s that a world-class team has to run like a world-class orchestra, with everyone – from the triangle player to the lead violinist – understanding the importance of their role. “Even though it’s a little ‘ding-ding’, the triangle still has a critical part to play!”

“As a leader, I likened myself to the orchestra conductor – I had to inspire everyone to understand that their role was essential – it didn’t matter if they were the doorman or the chief specialist in modern art,” she recalls. “When it all came together – everyone knew the part they were playing, played great music and delivered fantastic results in harmony – now that’s inspiring.”

* Sustained

Inspiration is not a podium performance.

Sure, you may take to the podium to deliver presentations and talks that inspire others. They will be important, and if you get them right they will be hugely inspiring to others.

But a truly inspiring leader keeps the inspiration SUSTAINED. She walks her talk; she (selectively) shows her vulnerable, human side; she knows that being an inspiring role model builds up over time, through all the little actions, comments and gestures.

As Jane Chesworth puts it, “Being inspiring is a consistent way of operating for a long time”.

“You have to deliver a very consistent message, confidently and calmly,” she advises. “If you’ve got through the tough times in the last year or so, your job is now to show and persuade people that you know how to get everyone and the business through the next period, and that it will lead to great opportunities for all in the future.”

Sustained inspiration delivers results. The result for Jane? During her leadership, the Christie’s team (orchestra!) delivered 300% sales growth and a 600% increase in profits.

Put the Y-E-S! of Inspiration into action and it will become a lot clearer why anyone should – and is – inspired by you.

Posted by Rebecca Hourston, Director of Programs on Thursday, March 18, 2010
Tags: leadership, authenticity, powerful communication, inspirational, results