THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING AN “INSPIRER” REGARDLESS OF YOUR PERSONALITY TYPE

One of the challenges with people who step up from being a member of a team into leading that team is that they are often promoted on the basis of the length of service and/or the technical competence, rather than on their ‘people leadership potential’. Because of this, the kinds of people that are promoted on that basis can be poorly equipped in some of the more subtle but vitally important skillsets of leadership.?

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I have been very impressed recently, when delivering leadership training to a business that has, not only identified one of these key leadership traits, but included it as one of the six key behaviours that they require managers and leaders in the business to portray- being inspiration. It may not be in your job description or in any formal documentation around leadership in your business (as is often the case), but whether you have been told or not, or whether it’s expected of you or not, you’ll more effectively lead your team to greater levels of productivity, customer service, and safety (insert any other key business aims for your organisation) by communicating with your team in an inspirational fashion.??

Let me give you an example where a business leader missed a tremendous opportunity to be inspirational. I was speaking at a conference several years ago in the transportation industry and as part of the three-day event there was an awards dinner- the dress theme of which was “military”. Employees went to great lengths to dress as if they’d come from the navy, the army, or the air force. The evening was split into two parts at two separate venues, the first of which required everyone to gather at an outdoor pursuit venue for an optional activity. It was really impressive to see so many people having made such an effort to dress according to the theme, including associated aspects of military activity such as nursing.??

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To open the proceedings one of the board members got up and welcomed people to the awards aspect of the conference. He spoke briefly about the strategic direction of the company, and about the challenging journey that lay ahead with very lofty goals set by the Board.?

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So, picture this- a board member in full military attire speaking to members of the organisation also dressed in military attire- it looked like a scene straight out of “Dunkirk” (minus the ocean and the boats). Unfortunately, in my opinion, he missed a wonderful opportunity to “inspire the troops”. He was literally standing on the stage in a general’s uniform addressing people who literally looked like his troops, and it would have been a fantastic opportunity for him to have sourced one of numerous World War I or World War II stories of ‘heroic endeavour, against all odds, that achieved an outstanding result’. History is full of these kind of examples to draw on and it would have been very easy for him to inspire his team with the story of military heroics then, on top of that platform, apply that to the challenge that the business had in terms of achieving its audacious strategic plan.?

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As a new team leader, it may be some time before you are required to stand in front of a large crowd and give some sort of arousing, inspirational ‘speech to the troops’. But in the meantime, there will be countless opportunities for you to challenge your team to go the extra mile, put in extra effort, or raise their game in terms of work output. When you have these opportunities, regardless of your natural personality type, you need to challenge yourself to communicate these messages in a way that inspires your team to take their performance to the next level. As one of the CEOs that I work with constantly says: “Your messages need to speak to the hearts and minds team, and not just their minds”.?