Inspiring Leadership

26 Jan

What if you asked the people who work for you to make a list of the things they expect from you as their leader? What do you think would be written down on the list? The list would possibly have words like:

To give hope
To be fair
To be honest
To have integrity
To be courageous
To stand for what is right
To accept mistakes
To have a strong moral fiber
And not hesitate to take chances.

The list would go on and on and the shoes would be difficult and complicated to fill. One of the bigger items on the list would almost certainly be a demand that the leader be someone who can inspire. To inspire them would easily be on the top of the list.

They may not have put it in the list, but an inspiring leader could be the biggest hope they have.

People need to be part of a cause and they will need a leader who can inspire them to fight for it. How does one do that? How does one inspire his or her team? Would a set of degrees from admired universities do the trick? Would a pristine and perfect resume filled with a career path only half-gods could have travelled have done the trick?

Lewis H. Lapham wrote, “Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.”

More than our accomplishments, the people we lead need to know what our values and principles are. They need to know what we stand for. When this is clear and said out in the open, then we are on the way to inspiring our team. The only way we can inspire them is to let them know that we are trying to live out our convictions. We need to be real to them. They need to know that we have our own struggles and that we are doing the best we can to improve who we are. We need to be able to discuss how we feel about certain issues that happen at work. It would be well worth it to be able to tell them about our mistakes and failures. It will make them see that like them we still have an abundance of things that we don’t have the answers to.

The next thing we can do is show the people we work with that we are willing to take risks. We don’t mean hopping on a boat and going deep sea fishing in the violent Siberian seas. We need to show them that we are willing to go beyond what we already believed we were capable of. It will mean facing our fears but it will also show them what we are about. Maybe it’s time to run that marathon you’ve always said you would join or to get registered and join ballroom dancing class. How about finally writing the book you’ve always told people you would write, or maybe patching up some deep hurt in the family.

If we want to inspire our people we will need to let them know that we believe in a set of principles which we are willing to come to blows for. That we will stand for our values even if we become unpopular for it.

To inspire our team we will also need to be men and women who model what they say. It can be done in a number of ways. It does not have to be a global project, like solving world peace and world hunger, but more in the consistency of doing little actions that display our character. There are many ways such as: keeping our word, treating all men equally, being honest in the little things, unwilling to compromise with wrong, not being ashamed to stand up for the truth, serving others, returning things to their proper place after use, refusing to litter, saying no to gossip, and many other actions that speak more of our moral fiber than our achievements.

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