Lean Quote: Leader's Actions Inspire Others

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." — John Quincy Adams

People do what they have to do for a manager, they do their best for an inspirational leader.  The ability to inspire people to reach great heights of performance and success is a skill that leaders need. Passion, purpose, listening and meaning help make a leader inspirational. Leaders must create a corporate culture that inspires, empowers, and energizes employees.

To inspire, you must both create resonance and move people with a compelling vision.  You must embody what you ask of others, and be able to articulate a shared vision in a way that inspires others to act.  You must offer a sense of common purpose beyond the day-to-day tasks, making work exciting with fun.

Inspirational leaders have an important role to play in their organization as defined below: 

1.  Provide an inspiring vision and strategic alignment, launch a crusade

2.  Help people connect their personal goals to business goals

3.  Make relentless innovation a religion

4.  Encourage entrepreneurial creativity and experimentation

5.  Involve everyone, empower and trust employees

6.  Coach and train your people to greatness

7.  Build teams and promote teamwork, leverage diversity

8.  Motivate, inspire and energize people, recognize achievements

9.  Encourage risk taking

10. Make work fun

The ability to inspire and motivate workers to high performance is one behavior that separates top-performing leaders from the rest of the pack.