Leadership is 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration

There, I said it. With due apologies to Thomas Edison for taking the liberty to mangle his most famous and oft quoted insight into the makings of a genius. Mr. Edison's comments were really attuned to the individual, or genius, to be appropriate. The comment about leadership is really about how the leader should treat his followers. History is littered with examples where leaders have been able to achieve really big things by inspiring their followers. Amongst social and political legends, Mahatama Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy are a few who immediately come to mind. But this advice is totally relevant to business leaders faced with motivating their employees to perform at their full potential. For knowledge economy companies, a spark of inspiration ignited by a skillful leader within employees can produce outsized results. On the other hand, forcing employees to perform under the rule of stick hardly leads to above par perfomance on a sustained basis.

What are the good ways to inspire employees is a topic for another post.