To motivate employees, get to know what each person wants, then lead by example and connect their work to a clear vision and shared core values. Bring real energy every day, do the work alongside them, and give them the resources to act. Motivation drives action, and inspiration gives people a reason to believe.
- Motivation drives action. Inspiration connects on an emotional level. Great teams need both.
- You can't motivate someone until you know what they want, and everybody wants something different.
- Lead by example, bring energy, and do the work yourself.
- Align the team on mission and core values, then empower people to act.
What is the difference between motivation and inspiration?
My co-host Arturo Gomez has led teams for 25 years, and this question split us right down the middle. We both agree they sit in separate seats, and both are needed to hit real goals.
| Motivation | Inspiration | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Gives people a reason to act now. | Strikes a chord on an emotional level. |
| Example | A new bonus that managers chase. | A leader whose example shows you what is possible. |
| Where it comes from | Goals, rewards, process and a shared mission. | Authenticity, values and the way a leader lives. |
Arturo believes inspiration comes first. When he recruits, the first impression has to feel inspiring, so people believe in the organization. Once the team believes, he can drive and motivate them.
I see it the other way. Mission and core values make motivation the default for a team, and the leader brings the inspiration on top. I also live in the word "get to" over "need to." We get to do everything in our lives.
How do you motivate employees?
- Lead by example, then share it. Show people what is possible by living it.
- Make what you stand for clear. Your personal mantra and values should be outlined so people can buy in.
- Keep the vision top of mind. People want to understand what the company is trying to accomplish.
- Know what each person wants. Get to know your people intimately well.
- Bring energy and enthusiasm. People follow leaders who bring it.
- Do the work. Get your hands dirty so you are believable.
- Get creative for each person. Interpret their dreams, wants and needs, then deliver.
- Empower them. Give people the resources and the process to act.
Why do you need to know what each employee wants?
In order to motivate somebody, you have to know what they want.
Arturo Gomez, Episode 47
Arturo looks at the 50 people on staff at one of his companies and knows they don't all want the same thing. He describes it as serving each person on a silver platter, and every platter holds different food. Creativity is how you figure out what goes on each one.
Everybody wants something a little different.
Why does leading by example motivate a team?
Leading by example is my number one. Everything I share comes from how I actually live. When I go for a hard run, I'm doing it for me. Then I share the experience so other people can see they can do it too. That is also why the label "motivational speaker" never sat right with me. My job is to show people what's possible.
Many leaders hold back because a voice tells them nobody wants to hear from them. If you have something inside you that can help even one person, it's your duty to share it. Arturo adds that people aren't inspired by someone sitting in the corner pointing and calling shots. You become believable by doing the work. More on that in leading by example.
Does a leader's energy really matter?
Energy and enthusiasm are a must. You cannot give to others what you are not experiencing yourself.
Energy comes in every personality. Arturo and I have very different personalities. A soft-spoken leader who checks in on you and quietly helps when you don't notice can be deeply inspiring. People run from negativity, so a positive and open culture has to be a focal point. Build that foundation with a positive company culture.
How does empowerment motivate employees?
To really inspire people to move, Arturo says you have to empower them to act. That means making sure the resources, energy, stamina and process are in place for people to advance.
Great leaders also aim past the office. Help people become better for themselves, as human beings. When you do that, a great outcome for the team usually follows. Go deeper on empowering employees.
How do you motivate a team that is learning AI?
Lead by example here too. Go first and learn the tools yourself, because 20 hours of hands-on practice is enough to get going. Share what you tried and what worked so your team can see it's possible. Talk openly about where AI fits, and give people the resources to experiment. Start with AI for leaders.
Do this today
- Impress yourself. Do something new, different, creative or hard. The energy it creates is what you share with your team.
- Get honest about your reasons. Ask yourself why you want to be more inspiring. People can tell when a leader is authentic.
Listen to the episode
Ways to Motivate and Inspire Your Team
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Questions people ask
Does motivation or inspiration come first?
Leaders disagree. Arturo Gomez inspires people first so they believe, then motivates them to act. Rob Cressy sees motivation as the default that mission and values create, with inspiration on top.
Do bonuses motivate employees?
Yes. A bonus can motivate managers to chase a result. Arturo Gomez points out that a bonus drives action without necessarily inspiring anyone.
What motivates employees most?
It depends on the person. Learn what each employee wants, because a team of 50 people will want 50 slightly different things.
Can a quiet leader motivate a team?
Yes. Energy shows up in care and consistency. A soft-spoken leader who checks in and helps without being asked can be deeply inspiring.
Full transcript
Episode 47: Ways to Motivate and Inspire Your Team
Welcome to Leadership DNA, a podcast for those who aspire to be a better leader. Alongside Arturo Gomez, I'm Rob Cressy. Today's topic, ways to motivate and inspire your team. And Arturo, as leaders we want to elevate everyone that we are with, and we know that not everybody is wired the same way that we are. But before we dive into specific ways that we can motivate and inspire our team, I want to talk about the distinction of the difference between motivation and inspiration. Because they are not the same things, and at the level that we operate on, we operate on inspiration, even though we know our team and the people who are around us sometimes want to be motivated. So how do you see the distinction between motivation and inspiration?
I see, you know, people are inspired by, I think, actionable things or seeing individuals that are performing or doing things or saying things that are compelling to the mission, to the vision, or just to, you know, connecting with people on the human side, I think is really where, for me, inspiration, the effect or the outcome from truly inspiring action is motivating people to do something, right? But you can also motivate, you know, teams. I, you know, I certainly have motivated some of my managers by implementing a bonus at work. You know, do, are they, are they truly inspired by what I've presented to them?
I don't know that inspiration is actually the word. Are they motivated now to chase down, you know, the additional bonus that we've created? I think so. I think that there's, you know, there's, there's words, action, process, procedure, those type of things can potentially create some motivation for people. And I think that, you know, the idea of having a common goal and, you know, trying to move people towards that, I think is something that can be motivating to masses.
But I do think that inspiration to me goes deeper. It's more of something like that's connecting on a, almost like on a, on an emotional level, whether it's like a, you know, you're striking a chord with the people that you're speaking with. And then I think that, you know, for me, for me, inspiration comes first. It's how do you inspire people, which then ultimately will motivate them to do, you know, the things that you're asking them to do.
Wow. It's very interesting. And I completely understand where you're coming from because I would actually say the opposite. I believe, at least in my context, motivation comes before inspiration, because when I look at us as leaders, motivation is a default. It's a given. You're never going to hear me or you're rarely going to hear me talk about motivation because the world that I live in is around inspiration.
And of course, I come from a unique perspective because of my background as a coach, as a speaker, as a host. And I'm someone who lives by example. And when I think about motivation versus inspiration, on inspiration, I think about authenticity. And there's a way that I live my life. And for me as a creator, I am always so value driven in how I think that I want to share how I live.
And it just so happens that other people see that and they're like, wow, Rob, I'm so inspired that you did X, Y, and Z. And I'm not doing it to, oh, I'm going to go for this hard run to inspire a bunch of other people. It's like, no, it's all internally driven for me. And my process is, if I'm going through an experience, I can share that experience with others to show them that they can do it for themselves.
And when someone says, Rob, you're a motivational speaker, because I've been on podcasts where people have just sort of taken that verbiage themselves. Like, oh, here's Rob Cressy. He's a motivational speaker. And it doesn't sit right with me because I don't want to stand there in front of an audience and be like, you need to get out of your bed and you need to do this. And I don't live in the word of need to. I live in the word of get to. We get to do everything in our life.
So for me, that's why I've got this unique distinction between motivation and inspiration because I want to inspire others of actions and possibilities and vision. But I also completely understand it from your perspective because it makes sense that I'm motivated by this extra bonus that I can get. I'm not inspired to do that. It's another carrot or thing that we can do.
So let's drive this down a little bit deeper now into the ways that we can motivate and inspire. And I just shared my number one is leading by example. I inspire others by leading by example. Then I share that. And I know I'm dealing with this. Not dealing with this. I'm talking to a lot of clients about this right now. A lot of CEOs or entrepreneurs or leaders, they have this self-limiting voice that the world doesn't want to hear from them. Or what value do I have?
Or why would anybody care about what I have to say on a podcast? And it's very relatable because at some point we all start at zero and we're working on finding our voice. We're not comfortable on camera or with a microphone. So there's some incongruency on doing that. But I can tell you from doing this over a thousand times that if you have something inside of you that can help even one person, it's your duty to share with the world. It's why Arturo and I are doing this podcast right now.
So for me, if you have something, share it because that will inspire someone. Because at some point in my life and yours likely as well, you consume something from someone that hit you just at the right time. And boy, are you thankful that they led into that calling of sharing that thing. And don't think they're special. Know that all of this is inside of you too. Yeah.
I mean, you know, I kind of want to, you know, I think the idea of, you know, that this, you know, your take and my take, I think, you know, I want to kind of go back on that a little bit and share, you know, for me, motivating somebody is like, for me, I see it as like, you know, trying to drive action. Right. Really like, so you motivate a buyer to buy a home and, you know, you reduce the price or whatever the case is, you find a reason for them to act. You know, when, at least the way that I'm perceiving it, when you're trying to get a group of people to jump on board, organization, a team, I think there has to be a lot of buy-in on the front end. And so for me, you know, when I'm recruiting staff and it's something that I'm very passionate about and that I spend a lot of time trying to fine tune and, you know, find where the rhythm is and where this, where the opportunities lie to bring talent to the table. I find that I have to really start by making sure that the first words that come out of my mouth or the actions that I see, that they see for me in the first impression feel really inspiring. That they feel like this is a person or this is an organization that aligns with the values that I have or really is exciting to come there because I'm going to learn, I'm going to get taught, I'm going to move this, I'm going to be part of this process to accomplish these goals. And so for me, the idea of trying to find inspiration or a reason to inspire or the inspiration, you know, at the base, at the front end, then for me, I'm able to start driving and motivating once I know that I have this team that's believing.
And so that's kind of where, you know, this perspective for me has originated. And I think, you know, when you dive into, at least in that scenario, some of the things that really can help is making sure that you have, you know, your personal mantra, your person, the things that you stand for have to be very clearly outlined for people to be, to buy in, to be inspired.
And maybe your story is not that inspiring, but I think that real leaders have, do have that I think are magnetic because of that. I also think, you know, when you're, when you're getting people to join, whether it's an organization, a team or some type of corporate environment, I think having vision of the company really top of mind, like what are you trying to accomplish? What are we doing here? I think it's something that people want to understand and buy into.
I think if you don't know your people, I think you have to know your people intimately well. In order to motivate somebody, you have to know what they want. And if you don't know what they want, it's very difficult to get them to act. And so everybody wants something a little different. The 50 people that I'm looking at that are, you know, part of my staff in this company or over there, it's like they don't all want the same thing.
And so understanding them and knowing exactly who they are allows you to further inspire them and also to motivate them. Energy and enthusiasm is a, you know, is a must. I mean, you can't, who's going to be inspired by somebody who has zero energy? You know, who's going to be inspired by somebody who's bringing zero enthusiasm to work? It's like, I don't want to be around that, you know, so that to me automatically pulls away the, these opportunities to inspire and to motivate. The other thing is you got to do the work. You know, people aren't inspired by people that are just sitting in the corner, like pointing and calling shots. Like in order to move and create action and also, and really to inspire people, they have to, they have to believe they have to, you have to be believable. You have, how do you, how do you become believable? You got to do the work, you know, and in whatever capacity it is, you have to be affecting the organization because you're willing to get your hands dirty in some capacity.
I think you got to be creative. You got to bring some real creative and innovative energy that allows flexibility, malleability, and kind of this open door really. So that, so that everybody's level of inspiration is going to be a little bit different. And so how are you interpreting people's dreams, their wants, their needs? And then the creativity comes when you actually are allowing yourself to deliver what they're asking for, essentially on a silver platter.
And all those platters have different food. It's like this person wants this person wants the other thing, you know? And so, you know, all these things I think create a positive and an open culture. But I think, you know, the idea of having a positive and open culture is also a must. I mean, you got to, people aren't inspired in negativity. They run from it, you know? And so you have to, that's got to be a real focal point.
And so, you know, I think that, you know, everybody has these opportunities, but to me, inspiration and motivation do sit, you know, on separate, you know, they sit in separate seats. They ultimately, I think, are required for both of them to be in unison for real goals to be met. You're reading my mind, Arturo, because the word for me is energy. And energy is something that is one of my superpowers, my ability to create it for myself as well as transfer it to others.
And there's a quote that I've always liked about this is, you cannot give to others that which you are not experiencing yourself. And energy doesn't mean that you have to have this personality that jumps off the screen, because Arturo, you and I have different personalities, but we're aligned in the way that we think and that we operate, because you could be inspired by how much someone loves and cares for you.
And that person could be soft-spoken, but they do the little things like checking in on you, or when you don't notice it, they go and help you out there. So energy, to me, is so a part of this. And one of the ways that you can create this energy within your company is all around alignment of mission and alignment of core values. And Arturo, I love how circular or interweaved all of our episodes are, because when you get everybody aligned to the mission of why we are doing what we are doing as a company or as a team, and here are our core values and how we operate, for me, these are the baselines for creating the motivation as the default for your team. And then we as leaders come in, like you said, with the inspiration. So there's these foundational elements to how we as a team build a culture to create inspired action and motivated employees or team members. Yeah. I think, you know, when you talk about inspiration, you talk about motivation, I think you have to bring the word empower into the equation, because in order to really inspire people to move, I think you have to make sure that you're empowering them to act. And so what does that mean? It just means a lot of different things.
It means making sure that you have the resources and the energy and the stamina and the process in place that can allow people to further advance. And, you know, and I want to make sure that we're, that I refrain from, you know, always speaking about like what the outcome is in a corporate environment or whatever. These are things you want to be able to inspire people in their lives. You know, you want to be able to inspire people in their lives, motivate them to become better people.
Not just, not just, you know, to, to win on the team. This is, you're trying to, real leaders are really trying to impact people on the human level, regardless of the outcome that happens at the office in a nine to five environment that happens on the field. Like what have you done to really create and inspire this individual to be better at, you know, just be a better person, be better for themselves.
And so, you know, you traditionally are going to get a great outcome in a team or a corporate type setting. If you can do that with these individuals. Love it. So Arturo, let's get to the action item or the takeaway. And what's on my mind is as a leader, how do you inspire yourself? And for me, there's a quote that I love that is almost like an inside joke to myself that always makes me smirk.
And it is impress yourself. And the way that I impress myself is by doing something new, different, creative, or hard, where after the fact, I look back and I was like, damn, that was impressive. And we live in a world that oftentimes we don't want to be showy or ego driven or who am I to talk about these things that are going on in my world.
But on my end, when I impress myself, that is immediately a little light bulb goes off. That's like, whoa, dude, you are living in inspired action. And when I live in that inspired action, I immediately turn on my camera or the microphone and I'm like, you guys won't believe what I just did because I'm impressed by the thing that I just did. And for me, this is all around action. You want to impress yourself, do something hard, do something creative, do something challenging because then you will have more energy and emotion inside of you of which you can then share with your team, with your audience on social, anything in between. Arturo, what about you? What's your action item or takeaway? God, my action item or takeaway on this one is, I think getting honest with yourself. What are your reasons?
What are your personal motivations for really trying to insert this idea of being inspiring to people? You know, to me, the people that are inspiring are extremely authentic and honest. And so because people can pick up on that. People aren't inspired by liars and people that are out for themselves. So I think, you know, when you really want, like if the idea or the motivation behind this podcast is like, wow, how do I become a little bit more inspiring to people or even to myself? I think it's done through honesty and really trying to get to the core of what's the end game? What's your goal? So, you know, again, I think a little bit of introspective look in terms of what those things are, I think will really help drive the kind of the focus of, you know, getting to a point where you think that you can bring a little bit more inspiration and motivation to yourself and to your team. Arturo, this has been one of my favorite episodes that we've recorded because we came at things from completely different angles. And I love that because that's one of the beauties of this, because we're not just trying to always be the same.
We're trying to create these different perspectives. So we would love to hear from you. You can hit us up on LinkedIn, go on LinkedIn, search leadership DNA. What do you believe comes first? Inspiration or motivation? Arturo, where can everybody else connect with you? It's going to be on LinkedIn, Arturo Gomez. And you know what? I'm really curious to hear what people say.
Yeah, it's good because before this podcast, I didn't know that there was going to be one versus the other, but clearly we just opened up Pandora's box on my end. You can hit me up on LinkedIn or Instagram at Rob Cressy. If we're not connected yet, hit me up. I would love to jam with you.
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