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Inspiration is a word that is used in many areas and in many contexts, but it’s not that often associated with leadership. Motivation is a more commonly used word when referring to leadership and management roles. Each of you will have your own preliminary definition or association with inspiration and probably can recall times when you found a person or an event or even a sunset particularly inspiring. We all know the feeling of being inspired and the many and varied ways that the word is used. For this book and this model, however, we want to condense it to a specific definition and a particular usage.

Let us start our exploration of the difference between the energy of inspiration and the energy of motivation with some definitions. The main entry for inspiration in the dictionary is “ecstasy,” which means to “stand outside the ordinary self.” Synonyms for inspiration are blessedness, bliss, delight, delirium, ebullience, elation, enthusiasm, exaltation, fervor, gladness, happiness, joy, and rapture. The main entry for motivation is “excitement.” Its synonyms are action, activity, ado, agitation, drama, enthusiasm, excitation, fever, flurry, furor, movement, stimulation, turmoil, and wildness. These are very different words that describe widely dissimilar emotional states. We can see that inspiration has connotations that allow us to be still within ourselves and in an inspired place. Motivation, with its orientation toward action, is more what we experience when we are bursting with energy and can’t wait to do something.

Most of us have experienced the meeting or event that is filled with motivational techniques. We get the bright lights, the loud music, the cheering from the stage. Invariably, these events will have us on our feet, clapping and making plenty of notes about what we will do next. These events can find resonance within us and spur us to action. This sort of energy definitely has its place. It jars us out of our seats, out of our comfort zone, and it charges our adrenaline. It has us making lists and setting goals. This is the key scene of so many feel-good movies, in which we see the rousing and moving half-time speech in the locker room of the big game. It is the speech that stirs our blood, bringing tears to our eyes and power to our limbs, leaving us pulsing with vitality and a renewed sense of determination and purpose. We breathe more freely, and our thoughts are focused. This is the energy of motivation that gets athletes to turn the game around in the critical second half.

But what about the other times? What about the early mornings when no one else is around? What about the quiet places in the day when we are looking for something else or the next place to direct our attention and energy? These times call for inspiration, drawn from deep within ourselves. It is the energy that we pull up from our deepest, most connected places. It sustains us through good times as well as adversity. We find it possible to be motivated without inspiration following. It is impossible, however, to be inspired without its being followed by motivation. To be truly inspired demands action.

We can take an even deeper meaning of inspiration—that it is the divine breath of life. For our purposes, we need leaders who understand their connection to causes greater than themselves. We need leaders who can connect with the people around them in deep and profound ways, coupling the drive of human passion with the wisdom and intelligence of strategic thinking. We need leaders whose stories can inform us as well as guide us. We need leaders who touch our hearts and awaken our minds. We need leaders who have found their inspiration. These leaders understand the ultimate divine breath of life—to live in the ebb and flow of a force that is greater than one’s self; to connect to a purpose that is higher than one’s self. This sort of inspiration, coupled with openness and transparency, is the root of inspirational presence.