You don’t have to be a manager to be inspirational and to motivate people. Having the right attitude at work is half the battle and can make the difference between a great day and a bad day. Here are some great insights into how inspirational people function – and in turn, how you can use their tips to be motivational and inspiring during your normal working week whether you sit on the board or in the C-suite, the sales floor or the shop floor. Everyone can make work better! Here’s how. Fact: Inspirational people bring out the ‘why’ in the work Make people’s work matter and it becomes more rewarding. Making cold calls isn’t fun, but show how businesses can genuinely save money if they purchase your product, and the teams believe in what they say. Working in a changing room isn’t a joy – until the person attending knows that they have the ability to lift someone’s mood, to offer genuine advice, to help make a sale of the important business suit,m the dress for their daughter’s wedding, the outfit that will hold them together at a funeral. Every job has a purpose and some pleasure to be found in it. Inspirational people bring out the why of the work for others, and for themselves. Fact: Inspirational people know that engaging is built on the foundation of listening You don’t need a trip to Paris and a rewards platform and a stack of croissants to be engaging. You don’t need to be a silicon valley entrepreneur that has been featured in Tech Crunch and gets invited to every event. You don’t need a Gucci suit or handbag, a giant voice and the gift of being an extrovert to be engaging. You can be quiet, calm, nervous, stressed, happy, sad – the only rule is that to be engaging, that you genuinely care about other people. That means listening, asking the right questions, spending real time with people, and being mindful in order to remember things that matter. If you thought being motivating and inspiring was all about booming your business rhetoric into a mic on stage, you’re mistaken – being a motivator is for anyone with ears! Fact: To be a real inspiration, you have to take work less seriously No one is getting out of this life alive, and whilst we might love the idea of the ‘hustle’ for cash, we all know really that money is just that, money. It doesn’t replace experiences. It doesn’t matter more than relationships. Great motivators know that they get more from people when they recognise this. No, people don’t want to work on a Sunday. Yes, people will gnaw away with resentment because you refused a day’s leave for someone’s birthday. At any level in your career, if you can remember that people have lives outside of work, and if you can do your bit to be flexible to their needs, it will make you a better person, better to be around, and inspiring. Of course, swanning off at 2pm to tend to meditate whilst your team are in meltdown isn’t cool, but being the type of person who leaves at a reasonable time, who values family and who openly has their priorities in order is something to be admired. Fact: When you aim to be kind – you’ll end up being innovative Good people help others. You might do a bit each day – letting someone out at a junction, or reaching for a milk in the supermarket if someone is too small. Being helpful is what makes the world go around. Apply this to business and you start to be a real inspiration, because in business speak, you are now a ‘#problem solver’. Being ‘open to exploring how to solve an issue’ is just being helpful -with spreadsheets. Try and approach your day with a view of how you can help people and you default into inspiring and motivational. You automatically pop yourself in your customer’s shoes, you show empathy, you’re able to provide real results – just because you went in to be kind. Fact: Motivation doesn’t strike like lightning Inspiring ideas might seem to be borne from a mix of luck, genetics and a great bank balance. But there is the fact that inspiring people put in work. Steven King writes book after book after book. Do you think he is always ‘in the mood’ for a bit of writing? Probably not. Inspirational people know that motivation isn’t borne out of ‘feeling like’ you want to do something. Great motivational people never wait for the moment to strike. If you waited to ‘feel like’ going to the dentist – you might never go. the same applies to anything in business and in your other relationships. Get going, work, work, work – and reflect later. What are the facts you have learned about being inspirational from people you have met? We would love to hear them. Reading we recommend Post navigation Positive impacts of a healthier workforce Quotables: “We only want to hire rockstars”
