64% of CEOs Don’t Recognize What Motivates Others
64% of CEOs don’t recognize what truly motivates employees.*
When you complain about unmotivated employees, you’re making a statement about yourself.
(Solar Impulse 2 training flight in Hawaii)
Inspirational leadership:
Everyone who speaks of Bertrand Piccard says he’s an inspirational leader. They don’t say he’s motivational. I asked Bertrand how he inspires people.
“Reveal what they would really like to do, but don’t dare to do.” Bertrand Piccard
In his own words (1:13):
Bonus: Who inspires you (1:39):
3 ways to inspire:
#1. Seek to inspire – not motivate:
Eliminate the term motivate. Adopt the term inspire. Baggage hangs from the term motivate – reward and punishment (carrots and sticks), for example.
Motivation is something you do to others. Inspiration rises from within. (This is more than semantics. You can’t motivate someone for very long. Inspiration fuels itself.)
#2. They:
Focus on others, not yourself. “Reveal what they would really like to do…”
- Like and accept the people on your team for who they are. Acceptance comes before inspiration.. Accepting people for who they are is the first step toward inspiration. You can’t reject the people you hope to inspire.
- Become “one of” not “one above”. Everyone’s on a journey, even you.
- Uncover inspiration in frustration. How might frustrations reveal what they would really like to do?
Get over yourself, but don’t lose yourself. Give your best self in service to others.
#3. Run to the edge:
Inspiration happens by example.
Average never inspires.
How are you pursuing your own dreams? (I’m not referring to being rich, admired, or powerful.)
- What are you doing that ignites someone else’s imagination?
- Give yourself to something bigger than yourself.
- How are you working to make the world better?
Inspiration tip: You might not be able to meet Neil Armstrong, but you can read biographies.
What are the qualities and behaviors of inspirational leaders?
How might leaders reveal what others would like to do, but don’t dare?
Great post, Dan, with great ideas.
Companies tend to select supervisors from their high performing employees, based on measured results which often have attached extrinsic rewards and incentives (money). From this pool of people who are motivated by such rewards, they select their managers. From the pool of high performing, extrinsically-reward-responsive managers, they select their DM and up through the system, this biased selection process works, passing the genes associated with extrinsically-motivated people up to the very top.
Of course the senior managers are going to think that extrinsic rewards are most critical. They have broad-based motivations, of course, and they DO have intrinsic motivations that drive them, but those measured rewarded results are primary in their belief systems.
We see this in the ancillary statistical results like levels of engagement (30%), people feeling their boss respects them (50%), people who feel their boss is interested in their ideas (50%) and so many other measures that show that most people are not fully involved or aligned or inspired. AND, we can choose to do things differently, if we want. It is a choice, not a need for training. Bosses KNOW how to ask and listen, they just choose not to do it for a variety of reasons (not important, too busy, etc.).
Thanks Dr. Scott. Love your insights. The thing that jumps to mind is successful leaders care about people. You can’t inspire someone you don’t care about. Cheers
I see CEO as a leader with more responcibilities. Most of the manages are excellent at managing money rather than utilizing them. In my work experience the toughest part is balancing your personal appraisal and team goals. Managers set personal golas and links with team performance. This is the worst part. People grow in any organization how they are treated.
One of the most valuable, eloquent posts to date. There are many great insights across the knowledge you share, this one resonated deeply.
You make a great point that inspiration is more than semantics. Those who are inspired not only fuel themselves, they CHOOSE to be invested in the mission and therefore invest more of themselves to be part of that mission, which can easily translate in to $$$$ Attempting to motivate others is merely manipulative controlling and in the end builds resentment and leads to low engagement. I recently received a letter from someone trying to get me to invest in their product. They asked me to support their mission. Imagine if the letter was tweaked ever so slightly by asking me to join their mission ( so it would then be my mission too!) Terrific post!
This is an excellent post. If 64% of leaders don’t know what motivtes employees, it is an indication of the steady march to blindness that accompanies the journey to the top.
When we are at the junior rungs, we know what motivates us. What happens along the way? I think that, to reach the top, we need a certain ruthlessness and a focus on the next rung of the ladder. i think that this blinds us to the lessons we could learn from others.
I’m going to use the ‘Inspiration ” idea to better define the ‘Total Employee Involvement’ Leadership training that currently utilizes Motivation.. I think Inspiration is more meaningful and personal..
thanks for the pointing out the meaningful difference..
Dan Teel
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