Enthusiasm and inspiration are very powerful motivational states. What’s even better is they’re completely free! A culture of inspiration, innovation and creativity has been proven capable of turning a company’s fortune right around, showing it to be a key leadership skill. If you’ve ever wished to learn how to motivate people to work with you effectively, read on for part 2 of my series on inspiring others.

2. Appeal to their competitiveness. Humans are competitive beings. Naturally we have to compete for life partners and a salary, but we also have to compete for the best education, the most enjoyable job or even the last doughnut in the shop! We all have a competitive spirit within, and this can be used by leaders to motivate others into performing brilliantly. As a leader, you simply have to set the challenge. Give the individual a high standard to try and meet, or compare them with another whom they wish to beat. Once the challenge has been set, nature takes over and hard work will follow.

Back in my sixth-form college I remember a conversation with my business teacher very well. The exam results from the first round of examinations had just been released and I found out I had achieved full marks on my business exam. Only a few minutes into the following class, my teacher called me to his desk and said the following words to me sincerely;

“I’ve known your results for 2 days, and couldn’t wait to talk to you. They’re Fantastic! About 3 years ago there was a girl in my class who did brilliantly in her exams; she was a bit arrogant and up herself though, but ended up getting full marks in her whole A Level anyway. She’s the only person to have ever to have done that in this college, but I honestly think that you could achieve that too, without being an arrogant individual! It’d be good to see a well-rounded student manage to do it as well.”

What a perfect demonstration of leadership. He had set me a challenge to try and complete. Was I now going to slack off in class and become complacent on the back of just one good grade? Of course not. I was going to try and beat that ‘undeserving’ girl; I was driven to get full marks without being ‘arrogant’ or unkind about it. It followed that during 2 year course I put in a tremendous amount of effort for that class and came out with an excellent grade. Who was I to prove him wrong in believing I could do this? My teacher had given me a good reputation and a challenge; a challenge that I was too competitive to ruin. He also gave me a chance to prove I was not only an academic equal, but more deserving than this unpleasant person. It was a perfect combination of challenges that had one desired result = complete dedication on my part.

Examples of challenges

• Setting a clear objective for the person to be achieved – A personal challenge.
• Creating a positive reputation for the person to uphold – A reputational challenge
• Challenging the person to beat a rival and giving them an honourable reason for doing so – A rival challenge
• Casually mention that you wouldn’t expect someone of the person’s level to normally be able to acheive the specific goal, but that they could be different. – A peer group challenge

The lesson from a leadership perspective is clear. If you can set your own friends or team-mates challenges in such a way, you too could fill them with a clear sense of purpose, and a focus that could only emerge from that nature competitive spirit that has inspired and motivated humanity throughout the ages.