Great Leaders Don't Motivate People. They Inspire Them.
One of the most common questions I get from leaders is: "How do I motivate my team?"
How do I get people to achieve more? How do I get them to be more engaged? How do I get people to perform?
They're great questions. But they're the wrong place to start.
The mistake isn't that we focus on motivation.
The mistake is believing motivation is where leadership begins.
Or worse, believing that a leader has the ability to determine what motivates another person.
People are motivated by different things at different stages of life.
Abraham Maslow recognised this more than eighty years ago when he introduced his Hierarchy of Needs. Human beings are motivated by different needs at different stages of life. Safety, belonging, achievement, growth, contribution and meaning all influence our behaviour.
Great leaders take time to understand motivations because they know motivation is deeply personal. While understanding what motivates people is fundamental to leadership, the only person who can truly determine what motivates someone... is that person.
Even then, it isn't always obvious. It takes deep reflection. Which leads me to what I believe is the distinction we've been missing. Leadership isn't about manufacturing motivation. It's about becoming the kind of person who inspires others to reconnect with what matters most to them.
“People find their own motivation. Great leaders help them remember why it matters.”
Inspiration vs Motivation.
We often use these words interchangeably, but there is a very distinct psychological difference.
Motivation is often self-driven or externally pushed. It relies on incentives, deadlines, or a "push" to get things done.
• Inspiration is an "infusion." It pulls you forward by changing your perspective and deeply arousing your passions
What is inspiration and what does it mean to be inspired?
The word inspiration comes from the Latin word inspirare — "to breathe into." I love that image because true inspiration doesn't feel like pressure. It’s not about forcing outcomes or controlling the narrative.
To be inspired is to experience a sudden, energising spark of creativity, purpose or possibility. It shifts your perspective, expands your thinking and compels you to act. It isn't simply an emotional feeling. It becomes a catalyst for change.
A moment where the future suddenly feels clearer than it did five minutes ago. Those moments don't simply motivate us, they shift us.
Three things are almost always present when people feel inspired:
A spark – a moment where we see what is possible.
Connection – a deep sense of meaning, authenticity and belief in something bigger than the individual.
Action – inspiration creates movement, not just an emotion.
One of the biggest myths about motivation is that we need to feel motivated before we begin. We don't. Motivation follows action.
Think about the last time you didn't feel like exercising, making a difficult phone call or starting an important piece of work. The hardest part wasn't the task. It was the first step.
Once you started, something changed - action created momentum, momentum built confidence, and confidence fuelled motivation.
Leadership works the same way. It isn't a choice between inspiration or motivation, it’s about understanding the sequence.
The Three Leadership Shifts
In more than three decades of leading people, developing leaders and helping organisations improve performance, I've come to believe that great leadership isn't built around competencies. It's built around three shifts.
Shift One: Inspiration
A leader is someone who leads and others follow. Before you can inspire others, you must be inspired yourself. Thus, leadership always begins with being the leader you are inspired to be.
Leadership begins with knowing who you are, what you stand for and why you are here. It is realised when your actions consistently match your intentions.
When people see themselves in the vision, influence follows.
Shift Two: Influence
Influence isn't about persuasion. It's about connection.
For generations, leadership was built on the belief that the leader needs to have the answers. With the rapid advancement of technology and AI, knowledge is no longer a leader's greatest source of value. The ability to listen, connect and help people discover their own thinking has become far more valuable.
When people see themselves in the purpose, commitment to action follows.
Shift Three: Impact
Inspiration without action changes nothing. Impact comes from consistently translating purpose into action.
When people feel connected to something meaningful and they take intentional action every day, and they celebrate progress over outcomes, an uplift in performance, growth and innovation comes naturally.
“Leadership begins with who you’re being, not what you’re doing.”
One Leadership Shift to Make Today
The next evolution of leadership isn't about finding better ways to motivate people. It’s about making a shift:
Stop worrying about how to motivate people.
Start becoming the kind of leader who inspires them.
Next time you walk into a meeting…before you speak, before you solve, before you try to motivate anyone. Pause and ask yourself:
“Why am I here?” and
“What values do I need to demonstrate more consistently?”
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Kylee Stone is the Founder and CEO of The Performance Code, a 100% First Nations-owned leadership consultancy helping organisations unlock performance by aligning strategy, people and purpose.
An Aboriginal woman with ancestral connections to the Kulluli and Waka Waka First Peoples, Kylee brings more than 25 years of leadership experience spanning corporate, entrepreneurial and transformational learning environments. Her work integrates Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing with modern neuroscience to help leaders navigate complexity, build trust and unlock true potential.
A highly sought-after facilitator, keynote speaker and leadership coach, Kylee has worked with some of Australia's most successful leaders and organisations to create an environment where growth accelerates and people are inspired, connected, fulfilled and flourishing.
Her mission is to develop 1 million leaders in the power of Listening For Purpose.
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