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Communication Is the Key to Motivation

Suzanne Bates

© 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ert.20249

Are you the kind of leader who can moti-vate and engage employees? As you

know, this is an essential leadership skill. Bydefinition, you cannot do all the work—it’simpossible! All you can hope to do is inspireother people to get it done. As a leader, theway you communicate with others is soimportant. What you say can ignite theirenergy and creativity. As the economy movestoward recovery, your company willencounter opportunities that may not haveexisted before. This is the time when youneed a passionate, engaged workforce to beinnovative and excited about the future.

Right now, while recovery is on the hori-zon, people may still feel stressed out.They’re doing more with less. They are man-aging on smaller budgets. Even if they’vebeen promoted, the opportunity is coupledwith new challenges. It is especially impor-tant for you as a leader right now to be ableto handle employees’ stress while painting anexciting picture of the future. If you want toretain your top people, you must show themand tell them how important they are to youand the company.

Why do you need a motivated team? Theanswer is obvious. Motivation has a direct,undeniable impact on the bottom line. Moti-vated employees are far more inclined toovercome the obstacles to their success. Ifyou can engage them not just one-on-one, butalso as a group, and help them see how thenext year or two could be your best yearsyet, imagine how excited they will be. It all

starts with a big, exciting vision and yourability as a leader to foster a positive, pro-ductive atmosphere while showing peoplehow they can contribute.

To be successful, you must embrace thisfact: most people who work in your organiza-tion want to find a worthy purpose for theirwork. We are all happiest when we are doingsomething important, when we are workingtoward a mission larger than ourselves. As aleader, when you understand that missionand purpose are tied to motivation, you canunlock great performance in your organiza-tion. As leaders, when we work with a pur-pose and inspire others to move toward thatpurpose, we become a powerful force in theuniverse.

Imagine the power of having an entireorganization of people who are working notjust for a paycheck, but also to achieve theirown potential. They are energized by thepossibilities and are connected to each otherthrough a common purpose. This is what ispossible when you follow the principles of“motivating like a CEO.” All leaders, whetherCEOs, executives, or managers, must remem-ber that they have a second title—chief moti-vational officer, or CMO.

PRINCIPLES FOR MOTIVATING LIKE A CEO

How do you become the kind of leader who is known for motivating and inspiringothers? Apply the following five key principles.

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1. Think of yourself as the CMO. Many lead-ers have told me how fulfilled they havefelt when they aligned others with a pur-pose and saw measurable business results.Aon Corporation CEO Greg Case visitedover 500 Aon offices around the world,working to connect people with the mis-sion of becoming one global company.Aon had grown by acquisition and hadmany brokers and consultants who pre-ferred operating independently. As CEO,Case felt energized by the mission tochange how these brokers and consultantssaw themselves and their company, andhe saw real and measurable financialresults. “A global client is worth eight ornine times what a regional client isworth,” says Case. “The economics are

staggering: a $1–million client becomes a$10–million client.”

2. Understand that motivating others reallybegins with you. As the CMO, you mustfeel purpose and passion in order to igniteit in others. People long to work for pas-sionate leaders who inspire them. Whatdo you love about your work and yourcompany? Why do you do what you do?What results fill you with pride and asense of achievement? Once you’re intouch with your own passion, it is conta-gious.

3. Acknowledge that people have different moti-vations. Don’t assume that what gets youout of bed in the morning is what moti-vates others. Commissions and bonuses,for example, might be a strong motivator

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for a salesperson, while having the oppor-tunity to work on innovative projects maybe what drives an engineer. Once people’sneeds are met and they believe they arereceiving a fair wage for their work, theyare motivated by doing work that fulfillsthem.

4. Make a personal connection. If you adoptthe practice of walking around, engagingin conversations, and making those con-versations about your employees, youwon’t believe how much people appreci-ate it. People will go out of their way for any leader who treats them with respectand gets to know them as individuals. Thebest motivators praise, recognize, andreward their people. Praise is a precisiontool in leadership that allows you to rein-force the exact behaviors and values thatwill make your organization successful.

5. Walk your talk. Acting in a way that isconsistent with your words is essential toyour success as a leader and a motivator.People believe what they see more thanwhat they hear. If you say you want a cul-ture of teamwork and respect, then besure your own leadership team demon-strates those values every day.

FINDING TIME TO BECOME A MOTIVATIONAL LEADER

Most leaders do not communicate withemployees as often or as effectively as theycould. In fact, in times of crisis or stress,leaders tend to retreat, talk to each other, andeven hold back information. Now is the timeto commit to communicating more often andmore effectively than ever before. Peopleneed to be in the flow of information, andthey need to hear from you, if they are goingto do their best work. In difficult times aswell as better ones, if they don’t hear from

As the CMO, you must feel purpose and passion in order toignite it in others. People long to work for passionate lead-ers who inspire them.

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you, they will fill that void with their ownspeculation. Even when you have bad news,it is far better to keep people up to date andfocused on what they can do to create a bet-ter future.

The demands on your time can make itseem challenging to be a motivational leader.However, by applying the above principles,you can accomplish so much. Look foropportunities every day to add something tothe mix that motivates people. Motivatingpeople isn’t so much a checklist as it is amind-set. It’s a way of thinking about howyou want to lead and taking a little extratime to consider what you really want to say.Get into that mind-set by thinking of motiva-tional communication every day as job number one and making it enjoyable to finddifferent ways to connect.

Motivational communication isn’t justabout giving an inspiring presentation to alarge group, although that’s a great skill tohave. It’s what you bring to every interactionthat connects people with purpose—and whatmoves them to act. Really see people, listento them, respond to them, and engage in ameaningful exchange of ideas.

How can you incorporate productive, posi-tive, and meaningful interactions into every-day business activities? Here are just a fewideas:

❏ Get out of your office, make the rounds,and linger while you talk; don’t be in ahurry.

❏ Attend a meeting you don’t usuallyattend, and just listen with interest.

❏ Observe a part of your business you don’tusually get to see.

❏ Send out a companywide e-mail to praisea team for an achievement.

❏ Publish great feedback from your personale-mail to the newsletter.

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❏ Blog about something you heard from anemployee that you found interesting.

❏ Plan some fun ways to exchange ideas atyour next weekly meeting.

❏ Organize a brown-bag lunch with anunusual, stimulating business topic todiscuss.

❏ Invite people who don’t usually travelwith you to visit a customer.

❏ Include three great success stories in yournext presentation.

❏ Ask people to share good news with eachother at the start of a meeting.

❏ Make up some new awards and give themout to employees at the next meeting.

❏ Make every Friday a walk-around day tovisit people you don’t see all the time.

❏ Send out at least three handwritten notesof thanks and congratulations each week.

❏ Every Thursday, schedule 30 minutes towrite a positive, inspiring e-mail to yourentire organization.

Small Gestures, Big Results

Small gestures can lead to big changes inyour organization. Bill Swanson, chairmanand CEO of Raytheon, tells the story of thetime he made an unexpected visit to the fac-tory floor of a Raytheon plant. He spoke per-sonally with an employee who had previ-ously called attention to problems, rolled uphis sleeves, and used his engineering back-ground to help her work out two specificproblems. By the time he was finished, workers

Motivational communication isn’t just about giving aninspiring presentation to a large group, although that’s agreat skill to have. It’s what you bring to every interactionthat connects people with purpose—and what moves themto act.


in the plant who were watching started toclap and cheer. After that visit, moralestarted to improve dramatically. Productivityshot up and stayed high, and that facility stillhas the highest on-time delivery and some ofthe highest-quality statistics in the company.

Take the time to make a personal connectionwith employees and customers. It might be assimple as a quick phone call that makes some-one’s day, sending a note or a small gift, stop-ping to chat, or scheduling a coffee or lunch.One such interaction can have an impact foryears. A simple acknowledgment is one of themost powerful motivators in the world.

BECOME A MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

As you move ahead in your career, and acceptleadership roles, your role really changes.Many leaders say they shift from an inward

focus to an external focus. This shift meansyou must become an ever better, more moti-vating speaker. And you must embrace thespeaking role. For example, a few years ago,Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com and Eons,started collecting all the name badges he worethat bore the title “speaker.” He was on theroad giving so many presentations that thecollection quickly grew to fill several shoe-boxes. He considered photographing them forthe cover of a book to make a point about hisrole as “master salesperson.” He says, “I thinkthat’s my job. Speaking is my natural spot asa leader, and I probably crafted that role, eventhough I was a pretty shy kid in high school.”

Jeff Taylor also adopted the mind-set thatcommunication is a daily, even hourly


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activity. This may be a big change in howyou schedule your time. Early in your career,you were rewarded for what you did. How-ever, as you move ahead, your successdepends upon your ability to articulate aclear vision, help people see where you’regoing and why, and inspire them to applytheir energies and talents to that effort.

A very important skill in motivationalspeaking is telling compelling stories. Storieshave impact. You can use them to communi-cate your leadership message, to share thelessons of successes and failures, as well asyour vision and values, purpose and passion.People enjoy hearing stories, and when theyremember the story, they remember thepoint. They remember what they see andfeel. Stories are one of the most powerfultools a speaker has to connect people to anidea or concept. If you do not currentlyinclude stories in your presentations, beginexperimenting to find your authentic voiceand style. This will help you catapult yourleadership communication style to a newlevel.

Become the Best You Can Be atCommunicating as a Leader

In today’s business world, good communica-tion skills are a “must-have.” If leaders arenot effective communicators, they are notlikely to get promoted or be successful in thetop jobs. Great organizations cultivate andinvest in leaders who are good communica-tors. Bill Lane, Jack Welch’s speechwriter atGeneral Electric for 20 years, wrote in hismemoir, Jacked Up (McGraw-Hill, 2008),“Every single one of the . . . [people] whowere in the original field of 23 potential GECEOs is a good-to-great ‘presenter.’ You sim-ply cannot get a job at this level if you can’t

A simple acknowledgment is one of the most powerful moti-vators in the world.

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stand up and teach, and persuade, excite . . .and lead” (p. 273).

Aon’s Greg Case says, “It’s essential thatour [entire leadership] team communicate allthe time. It’s not the Greg Case show. I’m notgood enough.” Case insists that his teamcome together around a game plan for com-munications and then lock arms to get it done:“We’re aligned around the game plan, we modelbehaviors we ask others to do, and we trusteach other. I expect our senior team to abso-lutely drive the plan and help people under-stand.”

DELIVER THE MESSAGE THROUGH MANY CHANNELS

There are many ways to deliver the messageto employees and important audiences. Manypeople take in more information by reading;others prefer to listen. Today’s technologyoffers countless ways to get the word out.Develop good writing skills. E-mail and writ-ten communication should be powerful tools,used to drive your messages home. Repeatthe key messages in many forums. Peopleneed to hear it many times before they act onit. Be creative in your written communica-tion; when appropriate, use humor, inspiringquotes, stories, and other elements to bring italive.

Some leaders, even in large organizations,use e-mail very effectively, knowing that itkeeps them connected with every level of theorganization. Raytheon CEO Bill Swansontries to answer all his e-mail within 24 hours,for a strategic reason. As the CEO of adefense company, he wants to be sure thatthere are no barriers to the top. “They shouldhave all the resources of the company avail-able to them, and I am a resource,” saysSwanson. “If I can understand what is going

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on, I can often help. If someone knows of aproblem and doesn’t do anything, it can’t befixed. So I want them to believe [that] theycan get in touch and communicate with me ifthey have a concern.”

True, new modes and technologies likeblogs and Twitter place new demands onleaders, so the key in deciding how to man-age this is to understand your own goals andobjectives. Learn the art of brevity. You canstrike a positive, warm tone and still keepyour messages short. Don’t be abrupt—becomplete, but be efficient.

The Web, video, and e-mail allow you tospread “good news” quickly, which is a trem-endous asset in motivating people. When thefirm Jones Lang LaSalle won the “Supplier of

the Year” award from General Motors, CEOPeter Roberts says he immediately went intoaction. Within minutes, he sent an e-mail tothe account manager and asked her to for-ward the note to the entire team, and then hecopied her manager on the note: “I told hersuper job, thank you on behalf of the firm forsetting the example and allowing me to set anexample of what being ‘the best’ reallymeans.”

FINAL THOUGHTS ON BECOMING AMOTIVATIONAL LEADER

The most successful leaders seem to possessa remarkable gift for inspiring and motivatingpeople. They are not just the hardest-workingleaders; they are the ones you remember.They don’t direct people so much as rallyothers to get behind a vision, and drive

Learn the art of brevity. You can strike a positive, warmtone and still keep your messages short.


forward with a powerful, common purpose.At any stage in your career, you can becomethis kind of leader, one who inspires peopleand brings them together to make excitingthings happen.

The first step to becoming a motivationalleader is deciding that this is the kind ofleader you want to be. Make the decision towork and live with passion every day. Com-municate this passion to others. Look forways to connect people to a common pur-pose, and be sure to tell them how important


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they are to the organization’s success. Then,sit back and watch the transformation. Moti-vating others is a great way to lead—in fact, I would argue, it is one of the highest defini-tions of leadership. And it is within all of usto do this. Set your compass toward motiva-tion; be the person you always wanted towork for—the one people look to for inspira-tion. Not only will you achieve your goals,but you’ll also feel tremendous satisfaction,and allow your organization to achieve itshighest potential.

Suzanne Bates is president and CEO of Bates Communications, and author of MotivateLike a CEO: Communicate Your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! (McGraw-Hill, 2009). She is an executive coach, author, speaker, entrepreneur, and former award-winning television news anchor. Her firm shows leaders how to get business resultsthrough better communications. To contact the author or for more information on workshops, seminars, and executive coaching, visit www.bates-communications.com.