How to Inspire Others
Drag others down and you’ll go down with them. The magnitude of your impact is determined by your ability to ignite passion in others.
You make a difference by
inspiring others to make a difference.
Those you inspire pull you forward. They don’t require pushing.
Five qualities of inspirational leaders:
Jeremy Kingsley, author of, “Inspired People Produce Results,” says inspirational leaders are:
- Dedicated.
- Loyal.
- Visionary.
- Planners.
- Confident.
5 Questions:
Jeremy offers a series of questions to assess your inspiration quotient:
- Do you absolutely believe in what your organization does and stands for?
- Do you have a plan for tomorrow?
- Do you enjoy planning your strategy?
- Are you optimistic?
- Do you motivate others easily?
I believe…
Leadership value is determined by the ability to inspire.
Don’t tell me what you can do. Tell me what you can inspire others to do.
Four surprising qualities of inspirational leaders:
- Passion balanced with compassion. The pursuit of personal gain and glory doesn’t inspire, it threatens. Inspiration occurs when others believe you genuinely put them before yourself.
- Strengths and frailties. The frailties you’re working through inspire others to work through theirs. Avoid whining. Focus on hope, progress, and benefit.
- Belief. “The people who influence you are the people who believe in you,” Henry Drummond.
- Optimism. Rise above the failures of others by believing in their future. Those who believe in others inspire others.
Lousy leaders push down. Successful leaders lift up.
“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great,” Mark Twain.
Bonus:
I asked Jeremy how leaders inspire themselves. He talked about finding mentors. In his own words (2:35):
Who has inspired you? How?
How do you inspire others?
Agree! Funny, I just wrote about the same topic this morning. Based on the same idea, worded differently! It is here if you are interested http://mashakubyshina.com/2013/03/18/management-style/
Thanks for adding your insights.
Thank you for writing powerful posts. They do help a lot!
I have an interesting twist on the first of the 5 questions. While it is important to believe in what your organization does and stands for, it is even more important to know and believe in what you do and stand for. You then choose an organization and outlets that best reflect those beliefs.
Thank you Alf. Great add! Without out that first step we get the cart before the horse.
Inspirational! Dan you have many times through all if the above, your integrity and your unerring ability to see the positives in almost anything. For me I try to follow these things and do so with energy, focus and humour.
This post is a great summary – putting others before you is indeed a key attribute of great leadership.
Richard
Thank you Richard.
I smiled when I read, “Inspirational” and remembered your smiling face.
Here’s to an inspiring week.
Dear Dan,
Ability to ignite others is the powerful statement and absolutely true about inspirational leaders. I get inspiration from my surroundings and experience. This makes me to think deeper and questions my potential and will power. In the process, I develop my will power along with understanding the limitation of body and brain.So, I believe inspiration is the process of learning, unlearning and inculcating. I think, inspiring process is combination of three components: initiating, influencing and inspiring. Leaders initiate actions and provide example to others. This way they influence others and its surrounding by their effort, belief and will power. And when others get influenced, they try to connect with leaders. When they connect with leaders, leaders start inspiring them by creating strong belief in others. Leaders create more of a positive and powerful future which is possible through will power and focus. They justify this by their achieved examples.
Good Morning Dan, another post got my thinker engaged, thanks.
My Mom has been my biggest inspiration, most brilliant and loving woman I ever met.
My Grandfather, he was a Senator backwhen that meant something about Character and Integrity and not just spending others people’s money and above all else do all and everything you can to get re-elected.
My Mom taught me above all else tell the truth, life goes much simpler that way.
My Granfather taught me
1. If it ain’t right, don’t do it.
2. If it ain’t true, don’t say it
3. If it ain’t yours, don’t take it.
I have also been greatly inspired by Jim Valvano. Now THAT is a Leader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Humor
Love
Results
We should all be so lucky.
Have a good one.
Scott ps what do I do to inspire others, nothing. AA says we
attract, not promote, so I leave self agrandisment to others with
healthier egos who can handle stuff like that better than me.
I wish I were perfect. Then, perhaps, I wouldn’t be so ready to back off.
Once upon a time, I hosted an inspiration series: articles, commentary, blogs, tweets. In the midst of a sticky issue, I was told I wasn’t living up to my own “advice”. It was very inhibiting. I stopped.
I recently puzzled this out, and decided to come out of hiding to continue the inspiration series. It was good to be called on my own behaviour. It was better to learn from it and forgive myself.
The best is feeling good about continuing to inspire.
Sorry for interruption. I like this topic. For me, I’m a person who lack in confident, so to inspire others, I think that is a impossible thing for me to do. Of course there are many ways to get myself inspiration, motivation but it didn’t work for me. I believe in others. But in correct word, I’m more rely to others than myself. I can’t lead myself but I like to be leaded. Is it a good thing? I think lack of confident is really horrible thing when we need to socialize with people around us.
Inspiration has a partner in Integrity. The outcome of inspiration has to be for the well-being of the whole. Thank you this is a must share for me. Blessings ~
The third question about whether or not I enjoy planning my strategy has me thinking… I’m wondering if I find the result or the path to getting there more enjoyable. Is it wrong, in your opinion, to value the actual result of the strategy over the initial stage? It feels like that tells you a lot about your goal and whether or not you truly love doing what you’re doing.
Very interesting article. I hadn’t really thought about leadership in that way. However, having recently come into a position of leadership where I am still trying to find my way and my own style, I can definitely agree that when you put others before you and help them to be the best they can be, that always comes back to you and pulls you forward…
The inspirational individuals I have worked with in the past, which I never really realized, possessed a quality I will call “quiet self-fullness”, best defined as an unassuming confidence about who they are. Their outward presentation is consistently even (not overly positive or negative about the events of the day). They have an uncanny ability to know what others around them need at any particular moment and are able to reflect back alternative problem solving suggestions. They are the type of person you want to know more about and could envision as a personal friend , as well as, colleague. To paraphrase a line from a movie, they make you want to be a better person.
Optimism is such an enduring trait, couldn’t agree more!
This is so good, and thank you for the audio clip at the end! I passed this on to my leadership team. Personally, I just transitioned from one mentor to 2 more guys. I pray I never have another phase of life when I DON’T have a mentor speaking into my life.
The pursue of happiness relies on what you give not what you get. getting a lot in life is giving a lot in life , and I mean spiritually. Leaders are those , not who are smarter, better prepared, but those with vision, and who own the skill to push others to be their best
I think a combination of optimism, hard work and selflessness is important in inspiring others to be productive, by setting a tone in the workplace that is positive and sets a standard.
Who has inspired you? How?
I am constantly inspired by colleagues and leaders who keep the organizational mission in all of their work. It’s easy to see they believe in and support the organization because their talk and actions consistently show it. I’m inspired by others who show their authentic selves and are confident in their abilities as well as their weaknesses. This past week I reached out to a colleague and thanked her for her leadership on our team even though she has only a small role and isn’t the team leader. I appreciate her insight and her patience, as she is willing to share her expertise in ways the rest of our team can understand and immediately use. I told her she is the kind of employee that makes me proud to work in my organization because of her leadership qualities. In previous positions, I’ve always been inspired by leaders who empower people to do their best, even if we are sometimes outside of our comfort zones or new. Failures aren’t seen as a setback or a weakness. Inspiring leaders create the safety net to support employees to try and continuing trying through challenges or failures.