Be inspirational
MacKechnie recalls reading a report that people want their direct report or supervisor to be inspirational.
While he says your employees have to possess their own inner motivation, you as the leader can still inspire the people around you to be better.
“It’s got to come from within,” he says. “I don’t believe I can really motivate anyone. I think what we can do in a company is we can create the environment, which is a new kind of trend.”
You are part of creating that environment by the vibe you put out to employees.
“If you are a wet rag as a leader, you aren’t going to lead anyone,” he says. “If you don’t have any spark in you, how are you going to get spark in other people? So enthusiasm is critical in any walk of life but certainly as a leader.”
When you hear the words “inspirational leader,” it may conjure up thoughts of a motivational speaker throwing out new age sayings or an over-the-top, always smiling, cheerleader type.
But that isn’t what it takes to inspire people.
“We all show enthusiasm in different ways,” he says. “One leader may have a low-key form of enthusiasm, but his people still can get it. He quietly has that enthusiasm for the task and for what we are doing and so forth, where someone might be more at a different level. I’m not talking about jumping around and singing songs and holding hands or hugging. If you listen to President Barack Obama or Warren Buffett, you can just here the enthusiasm from what they do in their voice.”
You can do little things like sharing good news with the whole company or sharing a compliment someone received from a client or a customer. You can also e-mail something to employees that relates to the company.
“If I see a nice quote or a great quote that seems appropriate about customer service or something, I just go on and send it to everyone,” he says. “Then I’ll get feedback from them. We try to make sure that we are listening and that our management is approachable and people are able to talk to us easily; that’s the culture we want.”
