Having someone in your business life who inspires you to
succeed and achieve your goals seems to be the exception than the rule these
days. I still remember the managers I had early in my career who were truly
inspirational and in no small way helped me create the solid foundation on
which I was able to build my career.
Talking to thousands of employees over the last 40 years
there’s no doubt about how much difference an inspirational leaders makes – not
just to the employees level of commitment and motivation – but the impact these
leaders have on improving and optimising organisational performance, as they
help create a culture that wants to ‘over achieve’ in areas that are
synergistic to the employee and the organisation – creating a win-win for
everyone involved.
So it seems sad that in the early years of the 21st
century, today’s leaders seem to lack the basic skills needed to inspire employees
and further seem to lack the desire to inspire them in the first place. Many
leaders seem to look inwardly rather than outwardly – putting themselves and
their career path and ‘status’ before anything else – possibly fearing that
they might lose control of their ‘own’ future and that others may excel and be
noticed more than them.
Yet the inspirational leaders I worked with had both –
successful careers and created successful careers for those around them. Rather
than being fearful of others excelling, they embraced it and were recognised
throughout the organisation for their success in taking their
department/organisations to new levels of excellence. These ‘new’ levels of excellence
and the inspirational leadership style created yet further incremental increases
in performance that could be tracked to the bottom line.
In 2013, after interviewing over 100 HR professionals in
the US, research by Keas, a company that focuses on employee health and wellness,
found on one question - “in your experience, what are the top three Human
Resources mistakes that every CEO makes?” - that the top-scoring three
responses were:
64% – leaders don’t recognize what truly motivates
employees
41% – leaders fail to lead by example
32% – leaders don’t make company culture a priority
Where all three of these actions (or non-actions) send a
loud, clear message to employees: you are not that important to me, (Anderson,
2013).
Just the fact that 64% of leaders don’t even recognize
what truly motivates employee’s highlights today’s problems around
inspirational leadership. It’s a fundamental requirement of a leader to know
their people and especially what motivates them. These are basic conversations
that usually take place at the ‘interview’ stage and then on a regular basis
each and every year after that.
This is then backed up by the next two traits – ‘failing
to lead by example’ and ‘not making company culture a priority’. It seems that
many leaders today see themselves ‘above’ those that work for them and hence
don’t see a need to lead by example. They are the boss, they have the power – “you
simple exist to do my bidding”. In fact it wasn’t that long ago I heard a
leader define their staff as “people whose job it is to make me look good.”
Leadership seems to be going backwards – partly because
the inspirational role models that exist out there in the global economy don’t
even see the light of day. Where the media is obsessed with reporting
‘negative’ behaviours these days and seem to fail to grasp the need to show
future generations ‘positive’ behaviours in the work place so they can see the
benefits early in their lives and might even be positively rather than
negatively influenced.
Whether we want to openly admit it or not – we all want
to be led by an inspirational leader – as if nothing else they make our jobs so
much more enjoyable and give the opportunities for us to challenge ourselves,
if we want to.
In 2013 IBM asked 1,700 CEOs in 64 countries, “what do
top executives want from their leaders?” The three leadership traits that most
mattered were; (1) the ability to focus intensely on customer needs, (3) the
ability to collaborate with colleagues and (3) the ability to inspire. (Zenger
and Folkman, 2013).
Zenger and Folkman’s research found that “some of what
(inspirational) leaders did was specific and tangible. For example, they set
stretch goals with their team. They spent time developing their subordinates.
They engaged in highly collaborative behavior. They encouraged those about them
to be more innovative.”
Other things Zenger and Folkman identified were somewhat
less specific and less tangible, yet are probably the real traits that make
them stand out of other wannabe inspiring leaders; where “these inspirational
leaders were more adept at making emotional connections with their
subordinates, for instance. They were better at establishing a clear vision.
They were more effective in their communication and willing to spend more time
communicating. They were ardent champions of change. They were perceived as
effective role models within the organization.”
What I’ve found during the course of my career is that
inspirational leaders embrace the following key behaviours and traits;
1) They ensure that making time for meeting with their
employees, one-on-one, on a regular basis is their number one priority;
2) They are visionaries and have the ability to communicate
these visions in a transparent and compelling narrative, that inspires their
employees to want to be part of the journey;
3) They are ‘big picture’ focused and can look beyond their
own department or organisation; and see short and long-term opportunities;
4) There have experienced life to the full (both business
and personal); and have usually experienced both significant ‘ups’ and ‘downs’
but learnt real life lessons from both;
5) They are principled role models; and never ask people to
do things they would never do themselves;
6) They are passionate – not just for the future of their
organisation – but passionate about all their employees too, knowing that you
can’t have one without the other; and finally
7) They are both patient and excellent listeners.
It’s up to today’s executive boards to embrace
inspirational leadership at the top and then ensure these basic behaviours role
down the leadership pipeline and become an integral part of the organisations
culture.
It’s not complicated or rocket science – we just need to
bring inspiration back to the work place. The benefits will gleaned by all
stakeholders.
References
Anderson, E. (2013). 3 Simple, Powerful Things Leaders
Can Do To Inspire People To Do Great Things. Forbes On-Line, August 29.
Zenger, J. and Folkman, J. (2013). What Inspiring Leaders
Do. Harvard Business Review On-Line, June 20.
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