Motivational Leadership

By Brian Tracy
Published: September 2008

In life, it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from. All that matters is where you’re going. You cannot change the past, but you can change the future by changing your actions today. And one of the most important things you think about with regard to the future is the person you want to be a week, a month, a year and five years from now.

Where are you going and how are you going to get there? Aside from what you want to accomplish, what kind of a person do you want to become as the result of all your work and effort? Men and women who achieve great things in life are invariably those who give a lot of thought to their own evolution and growth. They become exceptional people by design, not by accident. They are like master craftsmen, continually shaping and polishing their characters and personalities so that they evolve and grow into someone important and worthwhile. And so should you.

The highest goal you can have for yourself is to become a leader, to become an outstanding man or woman who is looked up to, admired and respected by the people around you. In this segment on motivational leadership, I’m going to share some ideas with you that will help you in your evolution toward personal leadership.

Motivational leadership is the ability to uplift and inspire others to perform at their best. Personal leadership, on the other hand, is the ability to motivate yourself to do the things and be the kind of person that makes you into a motivational leader. Both are necessary for maximum performance. They are flip sides of the same coin.

These are practical, proven ideas based on many years of research and experience, and any one of them may contain the key that turns on the engine of your own potential. It’s been said that, “Leadership is not what you do, but who you are.” This, however, is only partially true. Leadership is very much who you are, but it cannot be divorced from what you do. Who you are represents the inner person and what you do represents the outer person. Each is dependent on the other for maximum effectiveness.

The starting point of personal leadership, motivational leadership, is to begin seeing yourself as a role model, seeing yourself as an example to others. See yourself as a person who sets the standards that others follow. A key characteristic of leaders is that they set high standards of accountability for themselves and for their behaviors. They assume that others are watching them and then setting their own standards by what they do. They, in fact, lead by example just exactly as though someone were following them around, secretly taking notes and photographs of their daily actions for others to see and act upon.

Motivational leadership is based on the law of indirect effort. According to this law, most things in human life are achieved more easily by indirect means rather than by direct means. You more easily become a leader to others by demonstrating that you have the qualities of leadership, than you do by ordering others to follow your directions.

Instead of trying to get people to emulate you, you instead concentrate on living a life that is so admirable that others want to be like you without your saying a word. In business, for example, there are several kinds of power. Two of these are ascribed power and position power. Position power is the power that comes with a job title or a position in any organization. If you become a manager in a company, you automatically have certain powers and privileges that go along with your rank. You can order people about and make certain decisions. You can be a leader whether anyone likes you or not.

Ascribed power is the power you attract to yourself just by the kind of person you are. In every organization, there are people who are inordinately influential and looked up to by others, even though their positions may not be high up on the organizational chart. These are the men and women who are genuine leaders because of the quality of the people they have become, because of their characters and their personalities.

Perhaps the most powerful of motivational leaders is the person who practices what’s called “servant leadership.” Confucius said, “He who would be master must be servant of all.” The person who sees himself or herself as a servant, and who does everything possible to help others to perform at their best is practicing the highest form of “servant leadership.”

We have been led to believe, over the years, that leaders are those who stride boldly, exude power and confidence, give orders and make decisions for others to carry out. However, that’s old school. The leader of today is the one who asks questions, listens carefully, plans diligently and then builds consensus among all those necessary for achieving the goals. A leader does not try to do it by himself or herself. A leader is a person who gets things done by helping others to help themselves.

About the Author
Brian Tracy is the bestselling author of more than 42 books, published in 40 countries and translated into dozens of languages. Brian is a world renowned speaker and seminar leader, addressing more than 250,000 people each year throughout the US, Canada and in 40 other countries.

Brian is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, and President of Brian Tracy University, a private on-line University for Sales and Entrepreneurship. He can be reached at www.briantracy.com, www.briantracyu.com or 858-481-2977.