“Motivation is when you get hold of an idea and carry it through to its conclusion, and inspiration is when an idea gets hold of you and carries you where you are intended to go.” – Dr Wayne Dyer

Whether you’re an executive, a school teacher, or a parent raising a family, you’re a leader. You’re trying to get the best out of those in your charge and help them grow. Inspiration and motivation are both effective tools. The question is which one will generate the best results.

Basic Definitions

We often use these words interchangeably, but they’re actually quite different from each other. Google defines them as follows:

• Motivation is “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way” or “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something.” It can also be defined as motive, incentive, ambition, and determination.

• Inspiration is “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.” Similar words include creativity, inventiveness, innovation, imagination, and originality.

Once you understand the differences, the challenge lies in putting them into action to achieve your goals.

The Leadership Connection

The website Your Brilliance Unlimited offers five important differences between inspiration and motivation that every leader should understand.

1. Motivation is about feelings. Inspiration looks “for the next thing that makes sense to the bigger picture,” regardless of feelings.
2. Motivation wants quick wins, short-term gains. Inspiration means staying the course by keeping the overall achievement in sight.
3. “Motivation will always first ask how or what. Inspiration will always come back to questions that first ask who or why.”
4. Motivation tends to push people to do what you want, while inspiration shows you how to pull them toward your vision of the goal or achievement that will reward both individuals and teams.
5. “Personal leadership recognizes the difference between rigid control and fluid growth in our lives. Motivation is about control: controlling your feelings, actions, steps. When control is lost, we can lose our motivation or will power. Worse yet, we can even pass judgment on ourselves for what we didn’t accomplish. Inspiration is about knowing when to guard what’s important and when to lean in to life for the bigger picture of what you value and want to create.”

Parts Of A Whole

Good leaders know that success requires much more than just inspiration and motivation. Leaders know how to bond with their teams to understand what drives them. They employ empathetic listening, personal connections, and basic people-centered methods, all of which encompass the balanced approach of a heart-centered leadership style.

Inspiration and motivation are just two important parts of this very effective whole—and leaders must know which of them works best in any given situation.

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Although it’s been helping people for centuries, mindfulness—focusing on the present moment in a non-judgmental way—has finally found its place as a source of healthy living in the 21^st Century. The benefits of mindfulness have been touted in various places, including a recent Time Magazine special report and discussions in many other print and video news sources.

The reason for all this attention is because mindfulness is more than a fad or what some would call “wishful thinking.” It’s scientific fact.

The Science Of Mindfulness

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the father of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR, began studying mindfulness back in 1979. According to a recent Time Magazine article by Kate Pickert, The Mindful Revolution, Zinn had a revelation while on a meditation retreat.

Pickert writes that as a Ph.D. studying muscle development and anatomy Kabat-Zinn wondered, “What if he could use Buddhism-based meditation to help patients cope with conditions like chronic pain?”

And the neuro-scientific study of mindfulness began in earnest.

“In the years since,” says Pickert, “scientists have been able to prove that meditation and rigorous mindfulness training can lower cortisol levels and blood pressure, increase immune response and possibly even affect gene expression. Scientific study is also showing that meditation can have an impact on the structure of the brain itself.”

In 2012, there were 477 papers on mindfulness published in respected scientific journals, and the National Institute of Health “NIH has funded some 50 clinical trials in the past five years examining the effects of mindfulness on health,” states Pickert.

The Practical Applications

A quick internet search will reveal the many ways that mindfulness keeps us healthier by keeping us from over-stressing and even helping us to lose weight.

Pickert’s Time article describes many examples of how mindfulness reduces stress and improves focus in any type of work, and time for mindfulness and meditation is now being built into many corporate work environments.

Writing on BeliefNet.com, mindfulness-based psychologist Dr. Arnie Kozak discussed the benefits of mindfulness for those who work in healthcare, particularly the nursing profession where stress is constant due to the challenges, demands, and emotional issues of the work.

Regardless of who you are or what you do, practicing mindfulness can help you stay healthier and function more effectively in in our fast-moving, multi-tasking, digitally-focused world.

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If you’re an entrepreneur or executive, it’s a good bet you have the word “leader” somewhere on your resume or LinkedIn profile. But how many of you have the adjective “emotional” in front of it? More likely, you describe your leadership using words like “effective,” “organized,” or “proven.”

While the idea of being an emotional leader might not sound appealing at first, it’s often more effective than other leadership styles—if you understand why and how it works.

Gut Instinct

In business, we’re tempted to believe that the best way to make a decision or gain employee buy-in is with hard numbers, facts, and analysis. However, this isn’t always what motivates people to jump on the proverbial bandwagon.

“We are so focused on the hard skills and are often at a loss to connect with others in a way that is rooted in biology. As humans we feel first, we think second,” says author and leadership consultant Chuck Garcia writing in a recent SmartBrief.com article.

The website SkillsYouNeed.com concurs, stating that regardless of the hard data, most humans make their decisions based on the power of gut instinct. “You can make reasoned arguments as a leader, but you have to offer more than logic. You have to learn to appeal to your employees’ emotions.”

A Combination Approach

When you’re busy running or starting a business, it can often seem easier to just present your data, issue an edict, and be done with it. That might get you obedience but not necessarily buy-in, which could undermine a project right from the start.

Garcia believes that a better approach involves asking yourself what emotion you’re trying to create in your listeners (enthusiasm, pride, fear) and then choosing the words and actions to generate that response. Weave an emotional component into the evidence or reasoning you’re presenting.

“As a leader, you’re responsible for weighing the data and choosing the best course for your employees. Getting their buy-in requires more. You have to make them feel it in their gut,” says the Skills You Need article.

Transparency Is Key

Taking the step into this kind of leadership means having a willingness to show people your true authentic self. You need to remove the “corporate mask” and let your humanity show.

One way to do this, according to Garcia, is to share some of your failures. “Revealing vulnerabilities is an effective way to strip away your mask and help people understand that you’re just like them. You’ve had challenges. You’ve tried things. You’ve failed. Nothing more emotional than that. If you can help a colleague see you as a regular Joe or Jane who faced challenges, overcame them, and found success, you increase the chances to make a personal and lasting emotional connection.”

To sum up, emotional leadership isn’t about the feelings of the person in charge. It’s about the person in charge understanding what emotions and feelings will best motivate employees—and getting those emotions to come alive through empathy and transparency.

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Meditation is an effective way to get your body and mind to relax, which creates a healthier you. It’s also an effective tool for business success for everyone from owners to hourly employees. And there’s research to back that up.

A recent article on The Chopra Center website cites research from the Harvard Business School and a leading European business school which shows that “the two most effective business tools for twenty-first century executives are meditation and intuition. The benefits of meditation in the workplace are cumulative; they build on one another, starting with the individual and from there, positively impacting the performance of the business as a whole.”

A Productive Habit

Writing in the Huffington Post Small Business section, Anita Heidema shares that many successful entrepreneurs meditate daily, including Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic and Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter.

Heidema shared her tips for adding meditation to your daily routine. These include blocking out five minutes at the same time every day on your calendar, using meditations that can assist you with the specific things you want to achieve, and keeping your meditations simple, at least at the start. Mindful breathing is a good first exercise.

Specific Workplace Benefits

According to the Chopra Center, there are five specific benefits that meditation brings to the business world.

1. Increased Focus – The inner calm and peace from meditation make it easier for your brain to focus on specific goals and tasks.
2. Better Communication – This same clarity and focus enables clear and effective communication. “A clear mind will express clear thoughts,” says the article.
3. Improved Productivity – “By helping employees at all levels deal with their stress effectively, focus more clearly on their own goals and the goals of the company, and communicate clearly with the other members of their team, the productivity of the employee will improve.” This individual improvement then filters in to increase the entire company’s productivity.
4. Stronger Loyalty – This doesn’t come directly from mediation but as a result of a company offering meditation as part of its wellness benefits, which makes employees feel cared for and appreciated. Why would you leave a company that treats you so well?
5. Fewer Absences – Because meditation helps reduce stress, it lowers a person’s risk for issues such as heart disease, depression, or other conditions that would keep them out of work.

Whether it’s offered as a wellness benefit or allowed to be part of the daily office routine, workplace meditation is a proven way to keep both large and small companies running effectively.

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