Why is this? Work makes up half of our waking day so we want to do something that inspires us. While our work itself may have the capacity to inspire, we know negative, grumpy, or cynical leaders can rob us of inspiration. That's because a leader's emotional mood is contagious - an invisible but potent virus infecting all those around them. So if we want to be inspired at work we look for leaders who spread the inspiration virus.
The leadership lesson is simple - if you want inspired people around you then you have to be inspiring. Are there uninspired people around you? Head first to the mirror. Ask yourself – who am I being (or not being) that has people around me be uninspired?
But can you always be inspiring? John Adair, in his book How to Grow Leaders, has an interesting view. He believes inspiration is not a personality trait that you are born with. He says that inspiration is a phenomenon, like a rainbow. It requires the coming together of certain factors such as the task at hand, the people in the team, and the fire inside the leader. If all these come together at the same time then inspiration occurs.
This would suggest that inspiration is not something that can be continuously maintained. Adair argues in favour of enthusiasm over inspiration. Enthusiasm, he says, is a quality and is something that can exist with or without the coming together of factors.
"Can you think of a leader who lacks enthusiasm? It is hard to do so. It may be quiet and slow-burning enthusiasm rather than the heat and fireworks of passion, but it is always there."
John Adair , "How to Grow Leaders"
Inspiring Change
Leaders do need to be inspirational when it comes to getting people to take on large scale change. For example, inspiring people to a fundamentally new direction for the organisation or team. The bigger the change, the more inspiration is needed. Our experience in helping many organisations implement major change initiatives is that leaders are often good at describing the business logic for change, but fail to engage people at an emotional level.
Appealing to logic alone means people may understand the reason for the change but it seldom gets them into action. Good, inspiring leaders know people are primarily emotionally driven. They make sure they appeal to both the heart and the head.
Leadership lesson: being continually inspiring might not be possible but make sure you have the capacity to inspire when needed. In between times, be enthusiastic and optimistic.
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