General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.)


And the leader has to communicate to the followers a sense of passion, intensity, and a belief. So the followers will be moved, will be moved by the leaders passion. The leaders passion has to be infectious so that it spreads throughout the whole organization, and everyone is humming, wanting to do what the leader feels is necessary. But the great leaders I've known and the ones I've tried to follow are not just the ones that have a purpose, but the ones that have communicated to everybody in the organization what their purpose is and got them to believe in their purpose, and they all roll-up into the purpose of the organization.

So the person that used to come clean my office at night, I had a beautiful suite on the seventh floor of State Department building—it had been reconstructed to look like an eighteenth century mansion drawing room, Colonial era. It's magnificent, antiques everywhere and the person that comes every night to take care of it one might think of as a janitor, but I never saw that person as a janitor, and I made sure that person knew that I didn't see him or her as a janitor. I wanted them to have following purpose: tomorrow morning when people come from all over the world to visit the Secretary of State and they come into this room, this suite of rooms, I want it to shine! I want it to represent the best it can be with respect to how it reflects on the Secretary, how it reflects on Department of State, and how it reflects on the United States government. That was her purpose, not just to dust a desk.

So as you deal with your followers make sure that they all have within their hearts and within their minds a purpose that goes beyond just the mundane. And make sure that purpose links to your purpose and everybody is together on it. You are the leader, you motivate them, and I've gone beyond the word 'motivation' nice word, not good enough. You want to inspire your followers. And when you inspire them and you've got them humming, when they believe what you believe, then they are self-motivated. And that is the best sort of circumstances you can have at an organization.

So constantly be trying to find ways to motivate and then inspire people, make sure everybody has a sense of purpose and that you have given them a clear sense of purpose and be passionate about that sense of purpose. If you're not passionate then they will not be passionate.


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