Building A Fire Under Your Team Without Burning Them Up

Energizing and inspiring your people is never easy. Some people just refuse to be inspired. You cannot reach them all. However, there are those that desire to be inspired and energized. They just need you to be the spark that ignites their fire. The following post was originally posted by Dan Rockwell on May 23, 2014. His insight here can not be ignored. 

It takes a miracle to re-ignite a fire once you’ve hosed it down.

Skillful leaders use words to energize and release. Foolish leaders rein in and control.

Everyone has a fire inside. Leadership’s role is throwing gas on it.

10 principles of energy:

1.   Leading is easy when teams feel energized.

2.   Energy levels are leadership’s responsibility.

3.   Untended fires go out.

4.   Energy is a gift. You can’t buy it.

5.   Energy indicates love. High energy says people are doing what they love.

6.   Everywhere you see energy follow it, study it, and fuel it with words.

7.   Progress and success energize. Create and celebrate wins.

8.   Excellence energizes. Mediocrity deflates.

9.   Failure deflates. Evaluate failure and move forward quickly.

10.            Remove wet logs. Energy is contagious but, one wet log cools the whole fire.

7 questions:

Ask seven questions to explore, ignite, maintain, and fuel energy.

1.   Your eyes just lit up, what energized you?

2.   What was energizing about that? (The second question is the most important.)

3.   How might we focus your energy to accomplish our mission?

4.   What cools your energy?

5.   How can I fuel your energy?

6.   How can you monitor and maintain high energy?

7.   Who on your team loves to do what you hate?

Tip: Explore low energy when energy is high. Don’t bring it up when people are down.