If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.
Great leaders are not defined by the accolades they receive, but rather by the lives they touch and the people they inspire. From political figures to industrialists, people remember and respect leaders who manage to look beyond just themselves. A team working towards a common vision is more likely to succeed than a team working for paychecks and deadlines. Thus, values-based leadership is an inspired and impactful way to create a high-performance team.
But, how does a leader go about inspiring their team to work for something bigger than themselves?
Making it personal
The purpose is nothing, if not personal.
For anyone to truly commit to an idea, a vision, or a higher purpose, they need to feel personally connected to it. The human need to ‘feel connected’ is the key to impactful inspiration. Once a leader is able to tap into the emotion that they want the vision to inspire, their team will rise to the occasion, every time.
With Wheels of Hope, an indoor employee engagement activity, leaders can help bring their teams together to work on building cycles for underprivileged children. This activity inspires empathy and makes the team feel committed to the idea of building something out of compassion, together.
And this act of working together, despite the numerous disparities - from geographical to divisional, can effectively strengthen their interpersonal bonds.
Be Authentic
For a vision to feel truly personal, it needs inspired action on the individual’s part. Thus, for leaders trying to steer their team towards a unified goal, or a collective vision, their own actions also need to be aligned with the same.
When team members witness their leaders practicing what they preach on a daily basis, they are more likely to align their own behavior accordingly. In fact, a lack of inspired action on the leader’s part can nullify their attempts at inspiring their team members to follow suit.
Gone are the days when leaders could get away with simply dictating out instructions and getting results. Teams these days need to respect their managers as individuals first, to truly commit to the organization's vision. Sincerity not only sells but also leaves a lasting impression.
Make aligned actions a habit
Even with both passion and authenticity, your vision can’t be a one-off thing. Infrequent speeches by managers are never going to be enough to inspire people to align with the organization’s values. Instead, a perpetual approach towards imbing the values of an organization can work like clockwork.
Instead of simple presentations and conferences, experientially immersive experiences can prove to be highly impactful when trying to inspire your team. This is because immersion experiences allow teams to experience the ‘why’ of things firsthand.
Activities like Big Picture not only allow teams to collaborate effectively but also provide them with the chance to work towards a common goal while feeling completely engaged with the activity at hand.
Immersive experiences have proved themselves to be indispensable when it comes to effective employee engagement and training. Just the right sprinkle of experiential team engagement sessions and et voila! Your next employee engagement session can prove to be as engaging as educational.
Discover more about unconventional ways to inspire, engage, and rejuvenate your team’s passion with us.