Perspectives:“It's Your Actions That Inspire People Not Motivational Talks.”

I attended a leadership talk by Suresh Sambandam (Founder & CEO, Kissflow ), where he spoke about the drivers of performance which included learning, clarity and celebrating happy moments. After listening to this I had a few queries which I wanted to ask, but? was confused on how to approach him. I decided to post my query to him directly over a chat, towards the end of my day. So I posted it and started back home. I assumed that in the midst of his busy schedule I would get a late response or that he might not even read my chat.

To my surprise he responded to me after a few hours. I was thrilled to see his response. He asked me what I meant by “motivation / inspiration”. I immediately googled and shared what I thought was the most appropriate? answer. He found my quick hack and sent back a screenshot from google with the same text - I was found out.

He wanted to understand my perspective and not a generic answer, so I thought for a while and shared my understanding on the topic and reiterated my questions around the same. Here’s what I shared with him:

The very next day, he came by my desk and spent 25 minutes explaining his understanding of motivation at work. I was so impressed by his simple yet insightful response and the humility and willingness to take time to share it with me. And yes he broke the stereotype of following the hierarchy and not being approachable to people in need. I am excited to share my learnings from the conversation with Suresh with you all, so here we go …?

We can't motivate people by making conscious efforts or preaching about it.

Even when giving a “motivational” speech, impact is created at the receiver's end when they see / hear what the speaker has done. They respect the speaker because they are successful, they tend to listen and derive their motivation from the speaker's experience (ie what the speaker has done).

At the workplace, self motivation plays a crucial role in an individual’s performance. At the same time an employee can observe his supervisor or peers, learn from them and get inspired by their actions. If you want to inspire a bunch of people, just prove by your actions. People will then start to follow, respect and admire you. Each and every people manager needs to adopt this strategy to inspire his/her team.

They also need to work on their personal brand. Personal branding takes time; it involves a lot of clarity, effort and vulnerability. It's completely the choice of individuals to build their brand.? But once it is established it can be transferred wherever one goes.

This conversation is one of my memorable moments at Kissflow and one which I will always cherish...!!!