Karlene Kerfoot

From Motivation to InspirationLeadership

MonVAllONAL PROGRAMS areevorywhoro. Thore aremotivational speakers,vision and values re-

truats, cash bonuses, ajid celebra-tions for ac:hieving patient satisfac-tion or financial targets, and the listgoes on and on. And does all thiswork? Maybe, maybe not. Peopleiisiiiilly perform when they aro moti-valetl by a lai ge enough reward. Butwhen the reward is gone, it is oftenhard to sustain the behavior that wasdriven solely by extrinsic rewards.Then the motivation fizzles. Is therea way to sustain high perfonnancewith otlior than extrinsic rewards?Inspired people perform with orwithout rewards because they aredriven internally by a sense of mis-sion and purpose. Inspired people

respond to the fire of a passion thatdrives them to make a difference.Leaders who motivate have short-lived results. Leaders who inspiretlieir people and build self-sustain-ing communities of energized, car-ing people leave a legacy that con-tinues long beyond their tenure.Otu challenge for the noxt fewyears is to move out of the realm ofmotivating staff, and instead learnmore about inspirational leader-ship. We need more inspirationalleadership in health care and lessmotivational managers.

So what's tiie difference betweenmotivational and inspirational lead-ership? Traditionally, motivation iswhat we do to others to get them torespond the way we want them. Wemotivate a trained iinimal to performtricks with the promise (Df food,

We direct, delegate, and con-trol to achieve the stated outcomeswe need. By using externalrewards, we motivate, manipulate,control, and even exploit people toachieve the organization's objec-tives. In addition to positiverewards that motivate, we can alsomotivate by fear and punishment.But people are often left without asense of passion for what they do,and cannot sustain their perfor-mance when the external rewardsor fears are not there. Inspirationalleaders instill an intrinsic drive

that is fueled hy a higher purpose,a sense of mission, and a commit-ment to a vast array of possibilities.Inspiring leadership unleashes cre-ativity, enthusiasm, and passionthat motivational leadership can-not. The passion an inspirationalleader has is authentic, and surgesthroughout the organization. Theseleaders truly holieve that their roleis to serve the people and to enablethem to reach their innate poten-tial. When people are inspired,they feel the fire of passion thatwill drive them intrinsically andindependently to achieve the rightthing. People in an inspired organi-zation feel passionate ahoul thevalues and purposes, the commit-ment of the leaders to a highergood, and to the people ofthe orga-nization and the significance oftheir work. They model the leaderwho lives and breathes passion forothers and consequently see theirwork as serving others.

An inspired organization jtistdoesn't happen. It is the result of a

KARLENE KERFOOT, PhD. BN, CNAA.FAAN. is Snnior Vice Prosidont for Nursingand Patient Care SnrvicRS and Ch'mi NurseExecutive, Clarian Health, Indianapolis, IN,and Associate Dean, Nursiri)^ PracticeIndiana School of Nursing,

Copyright ©2001 Nursing Economics.

UROLOGIC NURSING / October 2002 / Volume 22 Number 5 347

beautiful relationship between theleader and the people and isfocused first on a bond of trustbetween the staff and the leader.Lucas (1999) points out that insome organizations you can feel theemptiness of the interior climatewhich is perceived as flat, dull,dead, and boring. There is no senseof fire and passion about whatmust be accomplished. And usual-ly the outcomes aren't good andcan't be sustained over a long time.In these lifeless places, Lucas statesthat people are trained to imper-sonate passionate people throughprograms such as customer trainingprograms but you can't feel the fireof passion in these impersonators.Lucas also observes that when youmeet the leader, you will feel thesame sense of emptiness and life-lessness that will overwhelm yourinteraction with this person.

Of course, it doesn't do anygood to talk about inspirationunless the basic human needsaren't met. Nurses will scoff at themention of inspired leadershipwhen they feel, for example, thatthe organization exploits them bynot paying competitive wageswhen the organization is financial-ly sound. To achieve success, theremust he a basic level of trust andsynergy hetween the staff and theleaders for anything to work.Establishing this sense of trustwithin the organization comesbefore anything else. Unfortunatelymany of the motivational programshave created this sense of distrustbetween staff and leaders.

But trust is also a two-waystreet. Staff who have a sense ofentitlement and victimization willblock any change that will lead to apassionate committed work force.Just as leaders should be selectedfor their ability to connect with thestaff, establish trust, and enablestaff to reach higher levels thanthey thought possible in their career,the same care must be taken in theselection and retention of peoplethroughout the organization. If youwant to create a passionate, commit-ted work force, you have to hire

committed passionate and inspiringpeople.

Unfortunately, in a nursingshortage, often a warm body will doand tlien we pay the price laterwhen that person poisons the cul-ture. Most staff would agree thatthey prefer to work short than towork around the negative, com-plaining, self-centered people whocreate the death spiral of depres-sion on a unit. Lucas (1999) recom-mends interviewing for passionwhen we hring new people into theorganization and suggests that weassess on interview the person'spassion for life, vision, values,work, variety, others, and leaving amark. Herb Keller of SouthwestAirlines states, "We can teach thejob—we can't teach the attitude"(Chang, 2001, p. 158).

There is also the issue of"weeding" that the inspirationalleader has to address. Unfor-tunately, unless the negative forcesare addressed in an organization,they will take over. Flowers in agarden can bloom and flourish aslong as thore aren't aggressiveweeds that take over and suck thelife out of their heauty. The same istrue in patient care. One negativephysician, or unit secretary, or RN,or manager can spread her/his poi-son and damage all the flowers thatare trying to flourish and bloom ina unit. It's very difficult to addressthis issue and take affirmative mea-sures in a time of shortage. But ifthe weeding doesn't take place, theflowers on the unit will leave, or beimmobilized. Weeding must occureven in times of shortages.

We in organizations must takethe responsibility of creating workenvironments where committedpeople can easily feel energizedand keep their passions alive. Wecan easily quench the flames ofpassion by thinking that we have tomanage everyone, and know moreabout what needs to be done thantliose on the front lines. We con-stantly bring new enthusiastic peo-ple into our organization and putthem through training programsthat squelch their passion and cre-

ativity by telling them we know allthe answers and they have to doeverything our way. The results ofour very fine ability to squelch pas-sion are a very high degree ofburnout within our managers antIour staff. Just as we are now learn-ing more about human factoranalysis in the field of patient safe-ty, we have a large body of largelyignored literature that documentsthe physical and psychologicaleffects of burnout in nursing andpatient care staff. We know that theway we structure; units and work-load intensity will create burnoutin anyone who enters into thesecultures. Chang (2001) tells us tbatenergizing environments are builtaround making the environmentengaging, comfortable, appropriate,and inspiring. He also notes thatour communication, education,policies, and practices must alsopromote a positive, passionate out-look. We must take the responsibil-ity to create tbese kinds of workenvironments.

Inspirational leadership cre-ates passion. It is about himianbeings and their experiences, notabout heartless processes thatdepersonalize people in organiza-tions. Inspirational leaders trulylove what they do, and sincorolylove and care about the people whowork for them. They unleashpotential by inspiring people fromwithin. Effective leadership isabout serving others versus self-focused leadership. It's about serv-ing, not dictating. And most impor-tantly, it's about caring about ptio-ple, reawakening and openinghearts, listening to the stories ofthecaregivers, and committing to makea difference in their lives so theycan make a difference in tbe livesof those for whom they care. It'sabout inspiring, not motivating.$

REFERENCKSChang, R. (2001) The passion plan at work.

San Francisco: Jossey-BassLucas, J. (li!99) The passionate organiza-

tion. New York: American Manage-ment Association.

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