We want our leaders to be inspiring. However, we don’t discuss what makes an inspiring leader. We don’t discuss what inspires us. You may be able to take a speech class and get a cadence or a few rhetorical tricks. But inspiration is more than that.

I’ll define inspiration as:

Let’s break this down.

Intrinsic Motivators

Inspiration is a kind of persuasion. We use persuasion as a verbal technique to get someone to change their behavior. We might appeal to their interests or a type of logic. Money, for instance, can be a persuasive tool.

Inspiration differs from this kind of persuasion because it specifically eschews extrinsic motivations. It relies on intrinsic motivations, but it also recognizes that we cannot directly provide intrinsic motivations.

We can provide money, safety, titles, authority, and rewards. We can’t offer intrinsic motivators like a sense of purpose.

What does that leave us?

Since we can’t provide the intrinsic motivator, we’re left with only being able to offer breadcrumbs to that motivator. We have to lead the horse to water.

Story Telling and Sense-Making

People think in stories. When they lack intrinsic motivation, when they’re not inspired, there’s a story they’re telling in their head. Stories are based on evidence, but they are not directly evidence.

When you did a science experiment in grade school, you had to write down a few different sections: the hypothesis, the literature review, the results, and the conclusion.

Why did you have to write down both results and conclusion? Because the results are the mere evidence, while the conclusion is our interpretive lens on top of all that. The conclusion is a story we tell about the data.

In software (and architecture), we talk about “design patterns.” We have similar scaffolding in stories—archtypal stories like the heroe’s journey. These are easy to remember, easy to fit into our lives, easy stories to tell. When someone isn’t inspired, they’re telling themselves a bad story.

Bad Story Patterns

These are common reasons someone may not be inspired. They may be cynical, they may feel despair, they may be transactional. There are many others, and a big part of being inspirational is using active, empathetic listening to diagnose why someone isn’t feeling inspired.

Cynical

The cynic tells the story of management or leadership whose interests aren’t aligned with theirs. They’re just a cog in someone else’s machine. Everyone is out for themselves.

To inspire a cynic, you have to work to convince them that you authentically share their values. The easiest way to do this is to actually authentically share their values. So, go get started on that.

Despair

Someone feeling despair is telling themselves the story that they’re doomed, that nothing they do can change their fate. You may see this story being told during an economic downturn, for instance.

Here, the way to inspire them is to find a way to give them hope. Again, authenticity matters. No one will believe you if you don’t have hope yourself, and if your hope isn’t rational.

Before a large battle, a general rallies her troops by emotionally convincing them that victory is possible. Making them believe they can win.

She gives them hope.

Transactionality

Some folks just don’t really find intrinsic motivations all that motivating. That’s a pity. People who are intrinsically motivated often get way more out of life, and more often achieve their goals.

They tell themselves the story that everyone is like this, that anyone saying otherwise is bullshitting you. They’re similar to the cynic except they’re happy to live in the unjust world they create for themselves, whereas the cynic is unhappy.

You can still sometimes inspire these folks, though. Remember, you can tell them another story. Frame the situation in another way. If they’re financially motivated, figure out how your vision financially benefits them. You don’t have to have money directly to convince someone else you’ve got a money-making idea.

One example of this might be inspiring someone to pursue training or education—not for the love of knowledge, but because they’ll command a higher salary.

It works. Sometimes.

Values

There are three families of intrinsic motivators (if you know me, you’ll know I’m borrowing these from Dan Pink’s book “Drive.”)

Purpose

Purpose is the why of what we’re doing. Believe it or not, any purpose is better than no purpose. When people ask, “Why are we doing this?” cynically, they’re telling you why they’re uninspired. And no, making money for shareholders probably won’t be a very inspiring story. However, helping customers solve their problems can work.

You don’t have to work in non-profits to have a compelling purpose.

Customers, oddly enough, are often human. So, making someone else’s life better can be inspiring, even if it’s just to help them listen to music in a slightly better way.

Autonomy

People intrinsically desire freedom. They want to make their own decisions. The easiest way to appeal to this sort of intrinsic motivation is to avoid micro-managing. Decisions should never stray from those who have to execute them.

When you take away autonomy, what you’re telling someone is that “you being inspired doesn’t even matter to me. Color within the lines or I’ll find someone who will.”

Mastery

People always want to be getting better. They want new experiences; they may not crave the pain of a challenge, but they do love the rewards of overcoming one.

Many complex tasks can be reframed in terms of mastery.

Look for signs of boredom or wanderlust when diagnosing a lack of mastery. And when you find it, look for ways for the person to continue to learn more. Go wide, and have them cross-train into functions outside of their specialty. Go deep, and have them become the site-wide expert. Go outside and have them attend third-party trainings or courses, bringing the knowledge back to the team.

Authenticity

A typical pattern in all inspiration is that you have to be believable. People have to believe you mean what you say. Again, the easiest way to do this is actually to believe what you’re saying.

If you’re looking for mere rhetorical tricks or gimmicks, you won’t get far. People will eventually see through you, and once they do, trust is hard to get back.