Inspire-  to arouse the mind to special or unusual activity and creativity

As a leader, when you are prepared to direct your team, make sure you take the time to inspire them and not talk-down to them.  Leaders inspire.  Look at the word ‘inspire’.  The humanityquest.com breaks down the etymology of the word  like this:  In + Spirare – to breathe, conveying the idea of motion or direction.

To direct with your breath-  to breathe into someone a direction.  We as humans make a huge deal about our breath.  About someone’s last breath, wasting our breath or a breath of fresh air… As leaders, we should understand that every breath we give to our team should be about direction-INSPIRATION.

Onions for Lunch!

Just remember the next time  you are talking to a team member or your group and you need to provide direction or criticism, be inspirational not someone’s dad.  We all have fathers and mothers.  No one ever succeeded in life because of what their folks told them- it was how their parents inspired them, nurtured them and lead them by example.

I have been trying really hard to provide entertaining content on what is a pretty dry subject for most people.  I LOVE leadership and management.  I believe that there are opportunities for the subject to be engaging and entertaining because the subject is dynamic and deals directly with…. Wait for it…..

Direct Personal Interaction.    Can’t be any more compelling than that. RIGHT?!?!?!

Evidently-  I am not right.  I am finding some real boring crap online.  I mean really boring.  How can a subject about interacting with people be less compelling than say this article title I found on Reddit.com:  ”UK parliament science and technology committee says Homeopathy has no evidence beyond placebo effect and spending NHS money on homeopathy can not be justified.”   I clicked on the link-  and there was no porn or free online money or anything that would lead 420 people to comment on the link!  :o (<-sarcasm and disbelief face)

Should not have gone shopping when I was hungry.

I have determined that the reason the general subject matter is not good is because the contributors (about 1% of all online users according to Seth Godin) are stuffy, starch shirted managers who do not really understand the actual JOY that a person should get from creating a leader or managing something with skill and focus.

My cry to leadership bloggers:

• Be Personal-  Even if it hurts and might be difficult for your bosses
• Be Witty-  I do NOT want to hear a dissertation or case study
• Be Effective-  I have too much actual management to do.  If I use my time to read your blog I better laugh  or have a light bulb go off
• Focus on People-  That is the core of leadership and management- SERIOUSLY!

Focus on these topics and you will find response- interaction and readership.  I will not purport to be all of these things in every blog I write-  but I am trying.  I will get better and I will LEAD the rest of the bloggers in my field to do the same.

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