High Impact Leaders do more than motivate. They Inspire!

Motivation is Never Enough

Motivation comes from the outside, but inspiration comes from the inside.

“Every once in a while I will hear someone in leadership complain about the performance or competency of the people around him…We must never forget that the people who follow us are exactly where we have led them.” ~ Andy Stanley

How is your team doing?

Where have you led your team?

When you look at them, it’s like looking in the mirror and seeing yourself. What you see when you look at your team is a reflection of how you’re doing as their leader. Their performance reflects your ability to motivate and inspire them. Your ability to lead is reflected in your team’s willingness to follow you and their desire to achieve results.

• Does your team trust you? If not, where are you failing them?
• Does your team respect you? If not, where are you failing them?
• Does your team work well together? If not, where are you failing them?
• Is your team motivated to make things happen? If not, where are you failing them?
• Does your team solve problems on their own? If not, where are you failing them?
• Does your team support you? If not, where are you failing them?
• Does your team embrace change? If not, where are you failing them?
• Is your team growing and excited about their future? If not, where are you failing them?

If you’re going to be a high impact leader, having a high impact team is your responsibility. It doesn’t matter if you inherited the team or you hand-picked the team. If you’re going to be a high impact leader, you must grow and develop your team. Where do you start? Wherever they are.

Whenever I hear someone moaning and groaning about their team or a team member, I’ll usually ask, “What leadership book are you reading?” The answer is most often, “I’m not reading.” Then I follow up with, “What’s the last leadership book you’ve read?”Most often, the answer is, “I haven’t read any.” Or, they’ll rattle off some book they read years ago, but they can’t tell me anything about it.

Weak leaders blame their team members when their ability to lead themselves is obviously the problem. Why don’t these weak leaders develop themselves? It’s simple. They are not inspired from within to lead themselves well. It’s also usually a sign of weak leadership all the way to the top of their organization. If there was a high impact leader at the top, everyone would be growing and developing.

Leadership problems at the bottom can always be traced back to a leadership problem at the top. However, high impact leaders don’t use that excuse. We are fully capable of developing ourselves and are absolutely responsible for doing so. If you get some help from above, great. If not, you must still make it happen. If you don’t, you are only holding yourself back while transferring the blame to others.

If you read Blue-Collar Leadership & Supervision: Unleash Your Team’s Potentialand get fired up and excited about what you can make happen, that’s great! That means I have motivated you. Motivation comes from the outside. However, motivation is never enough. To change your results, you must take action. Taking action requires something beyond motivation.

Taking action requires inspiration.

Inspiration comes from the inside. If you read this book and do something different as a result, I have done more than motivate you. I have inspired you. It’s no longer about me, it’s about you. But, it did start with me. I chose to write Blue-Collar Leadership & Supervision with the intention of inspiring others to become better leaders and better people. However, if you do that, you deserve the credit, not me. It’s about you.

No one will ever make a single choice for you. You must make all of those by yourself, so you deserve the credit for how well your life is going or not going.

If you truly want to motivate and inspire someone to take action, help them look good because that will make them feel good. This entire book is about me helping you look good. I want to help you shine. The more you shine, the more you will be inspired to continue your growth as a leader. Also, the higher you climb up the leadership mountain, the better the view gets and the better you will feel.

Inspiration or self-motivation comes from the inside, so it starts with feelings. If you won’t motivate yourself to act, you can’t inspire others to act. Unmotivated leaders will never motivate their teams. If you can’t motivate your team, you’re not motivated yourself. That’s your problem, not their problem.

I’ve seen countless unmotivated leaders come into my classes when I’m conducting onsite corporate leadership training. They come in all the same. But, they don’t all leave the same. Some of them leave motivated from within (inspired). Why do some leave inspired while the others leave feeling the same way they came in? What’s different? I can tell you. It’s BS! No, not that BS.

It’s their “belief system.” Some believe what they’re hearing is true. I was one of those people. When I was first exposed to leadership content like this, I told myself, “I believe this is true. I believe if I do these things I will be a better leader. I believe if I do these things my life will get better. I believe I will start applying what I’m learning.”

Today, eight years later, I have now proven it to be true. But initially, I simply believed it was true.

However, some attend my classes or read my books and tell themselves, “This worked for him, but it won’t for me. Mack doesn’t know me. He just thinks he does. This stuff will never work. There’s no need for me to try.” They don’t do it. So, it doesn’t work. But, it would have worked. If you’re having doubts, don’t. Just do it. Keep doing it and help others do it.

“You’ll never get dumber by making someone else smarter.” ~ Stanley Marcus Jr.