Ways To Inspire Others

From the Leadership Freak blog site:

Seven Proven Ways to Inspire Others

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You make a difference by inspiring others to make a difference.

Here’s how:

1. Stop fixing.

If your passion for excellence and success drives you to constantly fix people, stop it. Problem centered fixers invite self-protective restraint in others.

2. Compassion wins. 

The pursuit of personal gain and glory doesn’t inspire, it threatens. Inspiration occurs when others believe you genuinely put them before yourself.

3. Share frailties.

The frailties you’re working through inspire others to work through theirs. Avoid whining. Focus on hope, progress, and benefit.

4. Leverage weaknesses. 

Your weaknesses are inspirational opportunities, especially if you’re loved. For example, acknowledging your inability to create systems gives place for system builders to step up.

5. Be great.

A life dominated by weakness and frailty never inspires. Bring positive value.

Value is determined not by what you tear down
but what you build up.

6. Believe in others.

“The people who influence you are the people who believe in you,” Henry Drummond. Rise above the failures of others by believing in their future. Those who believe in others inspire others.

“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great,” Mark Twain.

7. See potential.

Potential motivates. See what could be not what is. People who believe in their potential dare to act. For example, a friend of mine is trying to earn a place in the Navy Seals. You don’t try that without believing in your potential.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

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How can leaders inspire others?