Lately I have been thinking a lot about inspirational leadership. In this world that focuses on the bad, weak, and the diminishing returns; inspirational leadership can be what separates mediocre performance from exceptional performance, poor morale from positive and productive morale.

Let’s face it, work is not always fun.  That, compounded with the grim hope that many feel in this economy, i.e. that they might never see a brighter future because of the poor performance of their organization, can cause many employees and even leaders to forget about what they are capable of.  They lose sight of their objectives and wallow in the drudgery of daily firefighting.

I recently had the opportunity to speak to an organization whose net worth had dropped a staggering 20% in the last 11 months from an already negative net worth.  Morale was low, trust in the leaders was low and there were a whole host of other problems. After significant financial and operational analysis, we called a company meeting. For hours the night before the meeting, I prepared what I was going to say.  I knew I could not “sugar coat” the problems.  The employees knew it was bad.  At the same time I did not want to point fingers or make the current management look bad.  They were talented and capable people, who just needed some direction. I felt that I needed to inspire them to look beyond the problems and see what the company was capable of.

I used to think that not every leader or manager could be inspirational; I have doubted my ability, like any other leader. I know I can write inspirational and while I have spoken many times to groups, companies or executives and inspired them to look beyond their problems, for some reason this was different too me.  It was a mixed group of people, morale was horribly low, performance was low and the stakes were higher.

The meeting turned out great.  Employees, who we previously thought were hopeless, told members of the management team at various times in the day that they were excited. The hope, that I had yearned to convey, pierced everyone’s mind and a new entity began to emerge out of the dark shroud it had been engulfed in. A line had been drawn in the sand, and everyone knew it was time to forget the past and focus on the future.

Being the process oriented person that I am, I kept thinking about this experience and other presentations I have done in the past, both inspirational and non-inspirational, to see what the keys were to creating inspirational communication.  I know there are many more qualified than I. But I figured that if I could break this down to a process, then I could be abundantly more successful in motivating others to get things done.

Well not just motivating, but inspiring.  I see motivation as getting people moving in a positive direction, I see inspiring them as getting them to move also in a positive direction, but with purpose.  Here is what I came up with that I think should be inclusive items to making one’s communication inspirational.

5 Steps to Inspirational Communication & Becoming An Inspirational Leader

1.       Genuineness
I believe in order to inspire others, you have to believe in what you are trying to convey. If you are trying to be inspirational just for the sake of making yourself look good then people will see through you.  I think genuineness is what can separate a pep talk from inspiring communication.  Being genuine is just being honest about the situation and showing your staff that you understand what is going on and that you care about it.

2.       Facts & Data
Maybe I am odd, but when explaining a situation, I always love a good fact thrown out to back-up the claim. I think that most staff members out there of most companies just have a huge distrust of management. A good fact will help drive your point home and for those not feeling the genuineness, the number will help convert them to the plan you are about to convey. Don’t go overboard on data points, 1 to 3 should be sufficient to help drive your point home.

3.       Labeling
I learned labeling many years ago and it was an eye opener to me. We generally think of labeling as negative, but it can be an amazing tool if used in a positive way. Labeling is easy, you imagine what you want, and you put that label of it on a person or persons. For example saying something like, “You guys are some of the most talented people I have had the privileged of working with; you’re loyal, dedicated, hardworking, and I know that if we can help focus all that talent, we will be <<insert goal>>, (i.e., the largest and most successful…..)”.

You can also use it to insert company qualities that might not be present, but that you want to inspire others to work for, “I can picture a company that has full benefits, generous compensation packages, and where the employees all respect each other and work together to efficiently solve any problem that comes our way.”

The idea with those two examples is to lift one’s vision out of the gutter and make people want to work toward the quality that you just described. This can be very powerful.

4.       Vulnerability
Depending on what type of presentation…. and the audience; vulnerability may be necessary to get through to those that have been severely hurt by your or your companies mismanagement.  Most experts usually preach that a leader has to be confident. I think you can be confident but still show vulnerability.  Vulnerability, when done right, puts your sacrifices and feelings about the condition on par with everyone else’s. It says to them that, we are all in this together.

5.       History and the Heart
History is full of inspiration. Giving people examples of organizations that were able to get out of similar problems or achieve similar types of goals, shows people that you’re not full of hot air and that what you are trying to convey is possible. But there is something that history can do even more, it can touch the heart.  You can see from my other points that they all involve an emotion. When people feel something in their heart, it gives them energy, focus, and the drive to perform better.  It can be a story, a quote or even a video or audio clip.

Late one evening a few days before the presentation I described at the beginning of this post, I was flipping through the channels on the TV in my hotel room.  I came across the end of the movie “Hellboy.”  I don’t watch much TV, but it grabbed my attention. In the last scene of the movie the character John Meyers in a closing narration says: “What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don’t think so. It’s the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them.”

Call me crazy, but that was what I needed.  The group I was talking to could connect to that. I needed to draw a symbolic line in the sand. A line that signified that the past was the past, that the ways of the past were the past, and that we were crossing this line into a new future. That quote from a crazy movie helped to strike the emotion I needed to touch.

History and media is full of inspirational tidbits of information to back any principle that you need to drive into the hearts of your listeners.

6.       Structure & Direction
Those that know me know I am a huge proponent of structure in many forms.  I believe you must have it in order to produce scalability, change and ultimately, profitability. In this instance of inspirational communication in leadership, what I mean is that there has to be some kind of plan. Fancy words, genuineness and an emotional touching story will only get you so far.

You don’t have to have all the answers, but you need to have the beginnings of a plan, even if those beginnings are to figure out the plan. For me this “plan” was nothing more than some scribbles on a small whiteboard that showed how the organization was going to start the process of fixing things.  I also explained what the staff should expect. I did not sugar-coat anything and told them it was not going to be easy.

In the end the staff knew what was expected, they knew how things were going to change, what their organization could achieve, and they had a reason burned in their hearts on why they needed to act.  Inspirational communication is not something that only needs to be used in a turnaround situation.  It can be used to take motivation to the next level, it can be used to bring about greater execution, it can be used to improve morale and turn hidden ‘A Players’ into real ones. Lastly, it will turn you into a more effective leader.