Inspirational Leadership is a critical factor in business success

The role of the leader, at the most fundamental level, is to inspire others to follow, willingly. This is not an administrative or management issue – it’s a human issue. It bypasses the faceless and anonymous ‘workforce’ and should tap directly into the hearts and minds of every individual.

Holding a leadership position in a business does not automatically confer leadership ability, nor is leadership the same as management. An effective manager may skillfully run the day to day business whilst things are at a constant, and simultaneously be incapable of enlisting worker support for change.

A leader has a choice, either to rule by force or they can attempt to inspire voluntary ‘followership’ thereby leveraging employee discretionary effort – leadership by intimidation or inspiration.

The only tool a leader has at his or her disposal is the ability to communicate, well! Right at the heart of a leader’s ability to inspire, ignite, excite employees is emotional intelligence.  The skill of assessing ones own emotions relating to the organisation or a task, and then using those to ignite those same emotions in others.

The journey to Inspirational leadership involves:

Self knowledge of why you care about your business, project or task and why you care about the constituents that you seek to lead

Being able to provide both clarity and meaning to others about the problem and the potential solution – clarity alone will not provide the ‘line of sight’ employees need to ensure that they feel that their contribution is meaningful and worthwhile.

Understanding and applying the concept of emotional connection whenever you need to inspire others.

Re-align to others concerns, both spoken and unspoken, prepare for challenges in a way that makes you, the leader, ‘bigger’ and less defensive.