Leading with Inspiration and Purpose — Learnings from the Science of Motivation

Transcript

How do we lead with inspiration and purpose? It’s a good question and every leader’s struggle.

You want your people to share your vision and enthusiasm of pursuing a common goal, and you wish them to each own that purpose so that you don’t have to keep on telling them what to do.

It’s a question that is closely tied with the endeavour to build self-organized, autonomous teams.

Instructive leadership has its limits, but it is after all practical. Don’t we all have experiences where we try motivating and inspiring our people by sharing the vision and purpose of whatever that we want to get done; only to revert to breaking down the work into tasks and handing out instruction as the deadline approaches. The gap between ideal and reality, ouch.

But we all hear about these leaders that seem immune from micro-management and are great at motivating people and rallying them for the collective good. Do they even exist? Are they even real?

I know a few, and I’d like to claim as a coach I am helping many more becoming one.