Inspired leadership

Perhaps the most potent tool any leader can have with long lasting impact is the ability to inspire action, rather than merely, command an action. Often, we confuse inspiration and motivation. They are not the same or synonymous. They are different in meaning and context. Motivation largely is an external stimuli that prompts action; inspiration is mostly an internal generation of enthusiasm, to perform. Motivation has a motive; that has to be achieved. That’s to say motivation has an end. Goals set for accomplishing during a given time scale, can be motivation, but it usually has a tag of reward attached, if achieved. Once a goal is achieved and the reward taken, motivation ceases to exist. Inspiration on the other hand is an overarching sense of commitment that isn’t time bound or has only a specific goal to surmount; it is a passion that is timeless. Inspired individuals do not have an end. There is no finish line to cross.

Inspiration is a feeling that transcends time and tasks, it has perpetuity attached to it. We have teams, who can be motivated one day, and look totally unmotivated the next day. Inspired managers know not what demotivation is. They remain inspired, regardless of goals or ends.

Inspiration, therefore, means what? It is about influencing or exciting a process that will stimulate mentally and emotionally. The source of inspiration is the value system, beliefs, life experiences, and preferences, imaginary --- enduring desire is inspiration. Motivation is a quest of directed achievement. Inspiration aims to make for a different and better person. Motivation allows for achievement of goals and inspired individuals go beyond the natural outcomes of efforts.

What or who can inspire you? Also, at what age do we begin to seek inspiration? There is no cut and dried answer to this paradox. In fact anyone or anything can become the source of inspiration to do some act of nobility that ushers in a great feeling of self fulfilment. For corporate managers, what is the source of inspiration that needs to be tapped for higher levels of productivity is a nagging question. What is it that will propel people into action with enthusiasm? Getting team members inspired is possible only if the leader can show to his followers a major and higher purpose that must be the underlying basis for all the mundane and routine carried in day in and day out. The action by teammates that arises out of the incentive of material gains or rewards, has major limitations --- it cannot be endless. It is finite. To the opposite of this, if the gains are non-material, the likelihood of its lingering the longest as a driver is far greater. If there is a moral purpose to work, inspiration to contribute more will be so ever natural reaction that has no match with external motivation. The need of every human is to establish a link, a connectivity, with divine forces; once done, the individual is then truly “inspired”.

No individual desirous of being inspired can remain in contest with his/her environment and surroundings. The need for harmony with the environment or in other words, market place and forces, is a pre- requisite for being induced with the spirit of inspiration. Intelligent (not foxy clever) managers recognise that to have higher and efficient levels of productivity, it is essential to bring spirituality to the workplace. Often we say that the “work force” operates with great enthusiasm. In saying so, we are admitting and accepting the fact that there is a much more powerful hidden resource, within every person, that needs to shake up, for propelling action.

An organisation (BCCI) that I started my career with, the President of that organisation would often refer to a “compelling, burning urge from within” as being the major force that directs towards a purpose beyond just the quest for the material. Mr Abedi believed, and did so, with absolute sincerity, that each human being is a unit of energy blessed by divinity, whose purpose is to direct itself towards human goodness.

Emancipate yourself from the trappings of here and now. Identify a purpose that is meaningful not merely to your own self, but to all around, that will have a life beyond oneself. There has to be deliberate dis-enchantment for worldly allurements. It is not to suggest that you have to not strive for material wellbeing, but the intent is to highlight that seeking material gains cannot or should not be the end itself. A higher purpose in life must be pursued to achieve self-fulfillment.

Every human, with no reference to their religious preferences, experiences the need to quest for, from within, to establish and relate to dome spirituality. It is this pursuit of seeking connection to spiritualism that one begins to experience the power of internally generated inspiration. The inner person resident within ourselves talks the most and is rarely in a silent mode. He whispers to us, that ahead is danger; or this act is not within the ambit of your values and belief system, etc. We listen sometimes, but also switch him off quite often. This inner being is actually the ‘lighthouse’ that provides us with guiding light on the path to choose for navigating through the troubled and turbulent waters of life and living. Those managers with whom the inner person resonates with their actions are extremely pleasant in disposition --- they are an island of calmness, serenity and tranquility, even in the most difficult of times. The inner mirror must remain always clean for it to be inspirational ... no mist or fog upon it.

The inner person acquires inspiration from several sources. Books are a major source of getting inspired from. I find reading auto and biographies extremely inspiring. Life experiences of others tend to bring the reader into contact with ideals practiced and implemented, by the wise. “Lives of great men, all remind us, we can make our lives sublime” is a hard fact and truth of life.

Parents are a fountain of inspiration-- off-Springs who can examine with sensitivity, the life and struggles of their parents, usually would develop into individuals, with an attitude of positivity, towards people and issues. I, personally hero worship my father, who was a Rock of Gibraltar, when it came to sticking to values and principles ... he was unrelenting and unflinching; in every action, I undertake, there is in me that latent reminder, of how he would have handled or reacted to a situation ...and that’s a blessing.

Colleagues at the workplace are an equal source of great inspiration. In the admiration and adulation of some colleagues, regardless of their position on the corporate ladder, I have ended up becoming an ardent follower of their attitudes and practices. An enabling working environment is a complete powder keg of inspiration.

Similarly, the simplicity adorned by my Rectors, Rev. Bro. John of God and Rev, Bro Felix, at school, created within students, the yearning to lead a life of simplicity --- it was proven to us that to be a powerful enabler of directing human effort, the most lethal weapon is, simplicity and unassumingly. This is inspiration.

Since inspiration is about a spirit- inspired, there has to be submission to something greater than the parts, which is the “whole”. All parts carry within themselves some minuscule elements of the powerful, “whole”; those leaders who can recognise this fundamental truth, remain cognisant of the power within and the power without. The power within is divine. In Ralph Emerson’s words, “... Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from where we not whence ... I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine”. It is not easy to discover your inner calling. Those who are able to recognise it achieve great satisfaction. The bitterness of experience must lead on to a fuller understanding of the need to inculcate responses towards others, that are filled with empathy, compassion, humility, forbearance, tolerance and a general attitude of kindness.

Lao Russel, a philosopher, teacher and writer, known for authoring books with such thought provoking titles as, “God will work with you, But not for you, wrote about this concept and crafted it in the following words, “whatever work you perform with deep desire, God will work with you by doing exactly as much as you do to manifest Him. The farmers, or gardeners, or foresters know this. They know that little work given by them brings but little work done by Nature. The giving and the re-giving are always equal. The more service you give to Nature, the more Nature will work with you in re-givings”.

Inspired managers not only discover their own hidden talents but also the special skills of their colleagues. Inspired people cannot be restrained; either in thought or action. They never set for themselves low targets, they do so to avoid getting into a state of triumph of achievement. They aim very high and love to strive.

Inspired managers take lessons of life from couplets such as these, “Forget the day that has been cut off from thy existence; disturb not thyself about tomorrow, which has not yet come, rest not upon that which is no more; live happily one instant, and throw not thy life to the winds.”(Omar Khayyam). Major traits and characteristics of inspired leadership are visible, they tend to accept ideas of all, but have their opinion to make ultimately; they are ever ready to accept criticism and a different point of view (wish our politicians would read this paragraph at least, including IK).

In the assignment of tasks, a manager chooses from his/her constituents, the ablest, and has little worry on the results to be achieved or obtained. Faith rules and remains predominant in an inspired leader.

The writer is a senior banker