I think we need to understand that although people connect with the source of their inspiration in different ways… certain “atmospheres” are necessary for inspiration and creativity.

For me these are freedom, safety, confidence and excitement. If the environment isn’t a “safe to fail” then the majority of people will feel free and open enough to be inspired.

The best films are normally made in environments where a strong vision is cast and freedom is released for everyone involved to add to the “inspiration.”

Inspiration is vital for life and “buy in” in any organization or on any project. Unleashing an employee’s creativity genuinely makes them feel good about their work.

Thanks
Geoff Talbot

Your welcome. Let us know what you think, ok? We’re working on a follow up book now and the feedback would be helpful.

Mike

I’ve worked with many CEOs and I have say that your posts always make me feel like I could work in your company. I think you’re dead on with respect to what inspires people.

Andy

They rather focused on developing those with the desire to, the want to, actually Welch practiced the 70-20-10 rule:

20% – Those are the self motivated, the doers, the people that would bring 80% of the whole results of the company. He advised to get out of their way, only make sure you reward them greatly.
70% – That was his main challenge to manage those to become 20%'rs or may fall into the 10%'rs category.
10% – They have to let go and had to be quickly before they spent 30years of their life in the company.

We have the national debate of teachers that most of them want to be rewarded by seniority, however in reality everbody (including teachers and goverment employees) need to be rewarded by results or performance.

I disagree with the idea of divorcing inspiration from being creative, conscientious or hardworking. One definitely affects the others. I think a leader's job is to both guide and inspire.

Thank you for calling out organizations for being trigger happy in creating new policies. Can't tell you how many times I've seen potential progress crippled by over application of policies.

Also, I appreciated your challenge to lead by example. It's ironic how we'll complain about our environment without taking the necessary steps to change ourselves and create a positive impact.

Thanks.

Regarding Number 1: Connect people to the larger story, this reminded me of Jim Collins' comments on the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast. Based on his extensive research of successful companies and comparisons to those that failed, he reflected that every great company can answer this question: "Why would it matter if we disappear?" As he put it, you must have a reason for existing, beyond just making money.

Regarding Number 2: Remind people why they matter, I find one of the best times to do this is when they are struggling with a particular task or project. Reminding team members of how far they have helped the organization come already, particularly when faced with a great challenge, can help keep us all focused on what we can achieve together, rather than focusing on a barrier in front of us.

Thanks again for sharing Michael.

And if we're not really doing that, then we're not really valuing inspiration.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

More policies means more meetings, more meetings mean less productivity…and in most cases the policies had a cumulative effect on the amount of time wasted to get 'permission' to proceed past policies that weren't understood by people who came in 'after the fact'…and yes, most of these new policies were extreme case examples of 'one-time' problems or people trying to find loop-holes. (because they really weren't team players or 'synergizing' as they should have been.)

I wish I could post your article and point out number 3 to a few key people I worked with in these areas…but alas, they probably would take offense and tell me to take the 2×4 out of my own eye. sigh.

Many thanks for raising this issue. Research shows that inspiration is in short supply today. This provides tremendous competitive edge for the leaders who do inspire the people they lead. A couple data points are telling. The Conference Board just published a research report in January that said employee engagement in America is at the lowest point since the organization began surveying more that 20 years ago and that the downward trend began long before the great recession. Another organization, the Corporate Executive Board, released research in 2000 that concluded 75 percent of employees were not engaged and giving their best efforts, and of the 25 percent who were engaged, 60 percent were not aligned with their organization's goals. The bottom line was that 90 percent of American's are either not engaged or aligned at work.

Research my consulting firm conducted showed that inspiration and employee engagement were grounded in both rational and emotional connections that people experience at work (I was glad to see you use the word "connect" in your first recommendation). Other research by the Corporate Executive Board has shown that emotional factors (e.g. the way people feel about the meaning of their work, whether they are respected and recognized at work and feel a sense of belonging, etc.) are four times as important as rational factors (such as compensation) when it comes to the amount of discretionary effort people put in their work.

I wrote a book entitled "Fired Up or Burned Out" (Thomas Nelson) about how to inspire employees by creating a "Connection Culture." If it's ok with you, why don't we make the digital version of the book available to your blog readers. Here's the link to the download:http://www.michaelleestallard.com/wp-content/uplo…

For those who don't have time to read the book, a quick introduction to Connection Cultures can be found in the free manifesto I wrote that Changethis published at this link:http://changethis.com/manifesto/show/44.06.Connec…

I have taught these principles at GE, Google, Johnson & Johnson and many other organizations. Next month the Rev. Jason Pankau and I will be teaching the leaders of NASA's Johnson Space Center how to inspire by increasing connections with employees.

I'll be speaking about Connection Cultures to leaders at the NASA Johnson Space Center next month.