Inspiration tells a tale of its own. Where it begins and where it will take you — one never knows. But the fact is — we all need inspiration to make our lives, our businesses and work lives rewarding experiences.
For writers, bloggers, photographers and all creative minds, inspiration can come from many sources. The trick is to stay inspired. Which is the hardest part.
Creatives develop exercises and brainstorming sessions to keep their inspiration flowing. Generally, individuals are making efforts on their own to keep their inspiration going. It is after all, human nature to keep at it.
And though individual efforts are effective to a large extent, the fear of losing ideas or the creative flow will cripple a creative services business. And since creativity is the backbone of all marketing efforts these days, inspiration is the one element of business that stays critical to the well-being of business productivity. It is also the one thing that leadership in a company needs to address continuously.
So how do we keep the God of inspiration smiling down on us. Well, one thing is to go about it in the simple way of taking inspiration from our surroundings – by developing an office that helps resources to move around, be able to talk about ideas and share information. A happy, creative office space.
It’s quite another to recognize inspiration as a critical business resource. And to develop a culture where inspiration and innovation can take root. In this case, leadership communication plays a vital role.
For business leaders, simple steps can help them develop an inspiration engine where their resources will be able to find salvation in times of burn outs and creative blocks. The challenge is to keep at it. For this, leaders need to mark communication as a priority task.
Tips to integrate inspiration in your company culture
Leadership needs to keep the working environment flexible, open to communication and extend the freedom to experiment on new ideas. Sounds simple enough — but how do we go about creating such a culture? Again, the crucial aspect is communication. So build a communication plan, SOPS for your internal communication and make sure your communication objectives reflect in the way you converse, act and communicate in the company.
Resources need to have the room to express individuality so that businesses can benefit from what they are offering. Sometimes a simple thing like process improvement can really help a business. If the resource is unable to share the idea or is hesitant to act upon his or her idea, the business is definitely losing out. So build open channels of communication. Set up employee portals, engagement activities, town halls, videos to get your messages out there. Keep it interactive and build a dialogue.
Leadership communication can inspire with a consistent flow of communication to the people of the company. This communication needs to be designed to deliver key values of the culture to the people and reinforce these values through examples, behaviors and role models.
Brainstorming sessions and new blood in the company affects the inspiration flow to a great extent. If you too are a business, looking for innovation then develop your recruitment cycles to include inspiring personalities at a certain percentage of your hiring. Make sure your business culture‘s values are reflecting in the people you are hiring. If you believe in inspiration, then build a culture of people who will help to inspire each other.
Inspiring stories shared through internal communication of people working in the company are a good way to build an inspiration engine. Newsletters, inbound marketing initiatives and fun activities keep the culture growing and developing which can help a great deal to keep people feeling good about what they do.
Everyone can do with some time off from their daily routines. ‘Away Days‘ and ‘Employee Engagement‘ activities play a big role in the way resources feel about their employer. Again, leadership participation and positive reinforcement of these ideas is an absolute must for these initiatives to be effective.
If you are a top executive in a company and your resources are able to walk up to you to talk about change, ask questions and discuss ideas, then consider yourself a successful leader. The quality of inspiration, you have been able to develop, will show itself in the way people communicate with each other and with their supervisors.
People managers who are trained to welcome innovation and new ideas are an asset in a services business. Developing such teams is the real task. Develop your own training modules and integrate your values to prepare your upcoming managers.
Any business which has a marketing function needs to liven up the environment. There are many ways to do this – to empower employees to share ideas, take initiatives and help leadership build profitability.
For this, the leadership communication needs to be strong. Leaders need to be accessible, available and willing to participate. If your leadership communication is persistent, research shows that business cultures begin to absorb inspiration and businesses benefit over time.
The task of a leader is not easy in such times. To manage communication in the company is not a bed of roses. Communication functions need to be closely knit with the executives in the company and that itself requires quite a lot of communication. And then the most important question arrives.
How do leaders keep themselves inspired? Well, that’s another topic and one we will discuss at another time. For now, take a look at this infographic that talks about simple ideas on staying inspired. Have a great Monday and don’t forget to tell us what keeps you inspired. Happy leading!
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