Inspirational Leadership

© 20078Dieter Langenecker

There is more to life

than to increase its speed(Mahatma Gandhi)


You are more

than you think you are


At the International Institute for Applied

Systems Analysis outside Vienna, Austria,

many years ago, a senior officer from the

United Nations closed his presentation by

saying, ―I‘ve dealt with many different

problems around the world, and I‘ve

concluded that there is only one real problem:

over the past hundred years, the power that

technology has given us has grown beyond

anyone‘s wildest imagination, but our wisdom

has not. If the gap between our power and our

wisdom is not redressed soon, I don‘t have

much hope for our prospects.‖


Being able to deal

with the speed of change in our lives

is not about what we already know.

It‘s about our approach

to what we don‘t know.

It‘s about our attitude towards life and living.

I believe that attitude leads behaviour.

Attitude is the cause; behaviour is the effect.

So if we really want to change behaviours,

we need to be thinking creatively

about how to change attitudes.


―The corporation as we know it, which is now 120 years old, is

not likely to survive the next 25 years. Legally and financially, yes, but not structurally and economically.‖

Peter Drucker, Business 2.0


We believe that if you want high efficiency

and productivity, a close cordial relationship

with your employees, which leads to high

morale, is necessary.

Sometimes it is more important to generate a

sense of affinity than anything else, and

sometimes you must make decisions that are,

technically, irrational.

You can be totally rational with a machine.

But if you work with people, sometimes logic

has to take a backseat to understanding

Aikito Morita (Sony)


"Everyone has equal rights,

but we also all have an equal

right to be different." Shimon Peres


―It is our feelings about

people – who we are, what

we want and why we think

the way we do – that are

critical‖

Jan Gunnarson (Hostmanship)


Lead and inspire people.

Don‘t try to manage and manipulate people.

Inventories can be managed,

but people must be led.

Ross Perot


"Motivation is an external, temporary

high that pushes you forward.

Inspiration is a internal, sustainable glow

which *pulls* you forward."

(Thomas Leonard)


The fundamental problem with most

businesses is that they are governed by

mediocre ideas.

Maximizing the return of invested capital is an

example of a mediocre idea. Mediocre ideas

don't uplift people. They don't give them

something they can tell their children about.

They don‘t create much meaning.

Bill O'Brien (CEO Hanover Insurance)


The most important indicator of successful

leadership in any business is the degree to which

the team is inspired to move towards a shared

vision. Inspiration provides ignition, motivation

and the driving energy required for any

organization to thrive.

Effective leaders establish and maintain high

inspiration levels.

Doing so requires vision, planning and

achievement as well as faith, trust and work. The

inevitable outcome for keeping inspiration levels

high for long enough however is success!

„Love Your Business―


To be a leader

you need vision, purpose, energy.

To be a great leader

you need to know

yourself,

your weaknesses,

your strengths,

your mission in life.


"It is an ironic habit of human beings

to run faster

when we have lost our way."

Rollo May


―In this country, managers think that a fast

decision is what counts. If the situation is new,

slowing down is necessary. Slow down.

Observe. Position yourself. Then act fast and

with a natural flow that comes from the inner

knowing. You have to slow down long enough

to really see what‘s needed. With a freshness

of vision, you have the possibility of a

freshness of action, and the overall response on

a collective level can be much quicker than

trying to implement hasty decisions that aren‘t

compelling to people.‖

Otto Scharmer


Leadership is not primarily based in

positions of authority,

but somehow this channelling of deep

desire to do the right thing for the whole;

and then it bubbles up every place and

there is no limit on who can contribute in

whatever way they can contribute

Peter Senge


Leadership based on wisdom

starts with the art to lead

yourself.


We can design incentive programs that will motivate;

we even can motivate with fear. This is a common practice among many leaders because motivation exploits different levels of power – the power of one person to punish or reward another.

For the motivator, it is a ―technique‖, a means for altering the behaviour of others, a means of exploiting, controlling and manipulating them.

It is a self-focused practice, too. When we attempt to motivate, we intend to cause behaviour in them that achieves something we want. When we attempt to motivate, we are not usually intending to serve others in their best interests.

At its best, motivation is an attempt to serve others in our best interests. It is this transparently selfish intent that causes cynicism instead of inspiration.

Lance Secretan


Motivation is something we „do―

to someone.

Inspiration is something that is

the result of a soulful

relationship.

Lance Secretan


When we are motivated, our emotions

and behaviour are determined by

external powers.

When we are inspired, our emotions

and behaviours are determined by

powers from within.

Lance Secretan


Inspiration is an inner knowing that

transcends any external motivation.

Knowing who we each are, and using

the wisdom in these discoveries, is

how we inspire others.

Lance Secretan


If you inspire, you don‘t have

employees, who just do their job;

you work with like-minded people

who are business partners.

Rosa Say


What compelled followers to dedicate

themselves with such passion to the visions

of Christ, Buddha, Gandhi, Confucius,

Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa,

Jefferson, Washington, and Nelson

Mandela? They were inspired more than

motivated. Martin Luther King Jr. did not

say, ―I have a strategic plan!‖. And Mother

Teresa did not have a quality program – she

didn‘t need one.

Lance Secretan


Perhaps our study of leadership has caused us to focus too much energy on the less relevant aspects of leadership – the mechanism instead of the essence – the sunset data rather than the joy, beauty, and experience of the sunset. After all, leadership is something we live ourselves, rather than do to others.

Lance Secretan


One of the keys in being successful in

executing a strategy is that

leaders communicate the strategy with

passion. Yet to be able to

communicate and implement a company

vision and strategy with passion,

you need to feel passionate about it

yourself. In order to feel

passionate about it, the vision and the

strategy have to be in-line

with one‘s own personal vision. But

most leaders fail in this area.


Most Leaders fail,

because they have not found

an answer to the single-most

important question:


What on Earth Am I Here For?


But how can we inspire and lead

others if we can´t even explain

the reason for our own existence

in the first place?


If you don't like what you do,

you will not create the desired results

If you don‘t like what you do,

don‘t do it for the rest of your life

If you like what you do,

you will do it the best way possible


If you want to be a leader, you have to

be a real human being. You must

recognize the true meaning of life

before you can become a great leader.

You must understand yourself.

N.N.


Part of the problem is that everyone is in such a hurry. People haven't found meaning in their lives, so they're running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. Then they find those things are empty, too, and they keep running. ..... So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they are busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

From: Tuesdays with Morrie


―When we are emotionally mature, we are much better able to solve the two categories of problems that cause much pain, dysfunction and frustration (both personal and organizational). Intrapersonal problems (within ourselves) show up as a lack of confidence, self-doubt, lack of clarity, anxiety, and fear. Interpersonal problems (between ourselves and others) result in conflict, lack of trust, ineffective communication, and, again, lack of clarity.‖

(Larry Wilson)


What‘s important is that we take the time to

listen to our own voice. Once we have done

that, we understand that few of us are born

to a specific profession in a specific

business with a specific title, but we all are

born as people, people who want to make

decisions of their own free will without

worrying too much about what others think

Jan Gunnarsson


Searching the byways of your inner self takes time and energy, and isn‘t something the world exactly encourages. It‘s a lonely job, but fortunately the means are easily accessible in forms of books, Buddha, your local priest, family, friends, etc. The answers are everywhere. Maybe all it takes is a comment from your seven-year-old child at the dinner table to suddenly open your eyes and allow you to clearly see the world you are caught up in and discover a power that is yours alone.

Jan Gunnarsson


I don‘t think it is unreasonable to expect those wholead others to have a reasonable perception ofthemselves. And by that I don't mean who you arein society or that you have good grades andgraduated at the top of your class or have workedhere and there.

No, I am talking about your core, what makes youa person. Superficial judgements made by societyand neighbours are one thing. Why some peopleare more sensitive to these influences than othersis due to a number of factors, the most importantprobably being where you grew up and how youwere raised.

The answer to who you are can only be foundwithin yourself, and it is a search that requires aconsiderable degree of self-confidence. Acompass. Because you don‘t want to get lost andbecome sick along the way.


How do you go about it? Where will you begin?Where can you begin?

I have read a lot of books, written speeches andpoems, composed music and worked in variouscountries. I have been on retreats and lived in silence,studied religions and philosophers, takenoutrageously expensive courses together with bigshots from around the world who were all searchingfor the same thing – themselves. I‘m still searching.And I will continue searching. Not that I ever expectto stop and say, ―I‘ve made it. I know everythingthere is to know about myself.‖ It‘s not going tohappen. I keep going because I‘ve realized that thejourney itself is part of my life.

Thinking, questioning, believing and being consciousof what I do. That, to me, is living.


First you slow down and look deeply

into yourself and the world until you

start to be present to what‘s trying to

emerge. Then you move back into the

world with a unique capacity to act

and create.

N.N.


―Ninety percent

of what we call ‗management‘

consists of making it difficult for

people to get things done.‖

Peter Drucker


"Leaders don't just make

products and make decisions.

Leaders make meaning.―

John Seely Brown, Xerox


―The Bottleneck is at the

Top of the Bottle‖

―Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity

of experience, the largest investment in the past, and the

greatest reverence for industry dogma?

At the top!”— Gary Hamel/―Strategy or Revolution‖/Harvard Business Review


Leadership

is a serving relationship with others

that inspires their growth

and makes the world a better place

Lance Secretan


―Groups become great only when

everyone in them, leaders and

members alike, is free to do his or

her absolute best.‖

―The best thing a leader can do for a

Great Group is to allow its members

to discover their greatness.‖

Warren Bennis, Patricia Ward Biederman

(Organizing Genius )


Teach People How to Think,

not What to Think


The point of a business is not to make

money, but to make stakeholders feel better.

However, what distinguishes business from a

hobby or another pastime is the money. To

be in business you have to deal with the

money.

Generally making more money and more

profit will have the stakeholders feel better.

Where this is the case, make more money.

However recognise that the business is not

making money for the sake of it, but to have

people feel better. Never lose sight of this,

and don‘t make money in a way that has the

stakeholders feel worse about the business.

Manage the flow of money such that you

love the business.

„Love Your Business―


Business in a civilized country cannot

be based on making money regardless

of anything else; that is the attitude

of gangsters and mob bosses.

The madness needs to stop.

Adrian Savage


Egoism, to me, means doing things at someone else‘s expense or shifting responsibility to the ―system‖ and

those around you and expecting them to adapt to your need.

Jan Gunnarsson


Capitalism as we know it - materialistic,

amoral, relentlessly exhausting

the world's natural resources and the people

who toil under the system -

is ultimately unsustainable. For capitalism to

have a future, it must change

its focus from the single-minded

accumulation of material capital, go beyond

profit and begin to accumulate "Spiritual

Capital" - a sense of wider meaning,

the possession of an enliving or inspiring

vision, the implementation of

fundamental human values,

and a deep sense of wider purpose.


There are only three ways to approach anything in life:

1. we can complain about things are.

2. we can be copyfrogs, ignoring or walking away from the issues and relationships that we find painful or unsatisfactory.

3. we can do the nobler thing - we can roll up our sleeves and work to change things.

Lance Secretan


Example is not the main thing in influencing

others.

It is the only thing.

Albert Einstein


“If you don’t like change,

you’re going to like

irrelevance even less.” —

General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff. U. S. Army


Do you need more knowledge? Is more

information going to save the world, or faster

computers, more scientific or intellectual

analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs

most at this time?

But what is wisdom and where is it to be

found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be

still. Just look and listen. No more is needed.

Being still, looking, and listening activates the

non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let

stillness direct your words and actions.

Eckhart Tolle


"What is the use of living

if it be not to strive for

noble causes and to make

this muddled world a

better place?"

- Winston Churchill


―When people in leadership positions begin to

serve a vision infused with a larger purpose,

their work shifts naturally from producing

results to encouraging the growth of people

who produce results.‖

Otto Scharmer


Never doubt that a small group of committed

citizens can change the world. Indeed, it‘s the

only thing that ever has.

Nick Hanauer, Amazon


―The handmaiden of emotional growth is spiritual growth.‖

―Spiritual Growth:

- Answering and living the answers to the questions ―Why am I here?‖ and ―What is my life about?‖,

- ―Me to We‖.‖

(Larry Wilson)


―Emotional and Spiritual Maturity:

serving a higher cause, and having the

emotional ability to bounce back from

defeats and actually grow from them

(I cannot fail, I can only learn and

grow).‖

(Larry Wilson)


We are all afraid

of being alone

N.N.


This is the true joy in life, the being used for a

purpose you consider a mighty one, the being a

force of nature, rather than a feverish, selfish

clod of ailments and grievances complaining

that the world will not devote itself to making

you happy.

Bernhard Shaw


“You must be the

change you wish to

see in the world

Mahatma Gandhi


The Future ain‘t

what it used to be

Winnie the Pooh


"There are really only two ways to

approach life, as victim or as a gallant

fighter, and you must decide if you

want to act or react, deal your own

cards or play with a stacked deck.

And if you don‘t decide which way to

play with life, it always plays with

you. "

Merle Shain


"Courage:

the power to let go of the familiar."

- Raymond Linquist


"One of the greatest discoveries a man

makes, is to find he can do what he

was afraid he couldn't do."

- Anonymous

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Inspirational Leadership