Product Description

A top business consultant and speaker lights the path to a positive, productive work environment
What do the best leaders do to achieve greatness in the modern workplace that is muddled by fear, pressure for productivity, overwork? Inspire! offers business leaders a clear vision of what a positive, productive, inspiring organization looks like in these challenging and chaotic times, and how to get there.

The key to extraordinary long-term performance lies in a transformational commitment to inspiring people rather than motivating them. Lance Secretan’s Higher Ground Leadership concepts have been widely used to increase profits and quality, slash staff turnover, and achieve record organizational and personal performance. Inspire! describes Lance’s breakthrough thinking, often in the words of the pace-setting leaders who are implementing them and building legacies. Countless examples, stories, and case studies demonstrate the magic of these brilliant ideas.

Six essential values form the foundation of positive, productive, and profitable organizations and a meaningful and fulfilling life—courage to begin the transformation; authenticity that lets people contribute all of themselves and excel; service that fosters a spirit of cooperation; truth-telling that builds trust and loyalty; love for others that leads to inspired results; and effectiveness, the attainment of results. Inspire! shows leaders in any organization how to foster these essential values that lead to personal and organizational greatness.

Lance Secretan (Alton, Ontario, Canada) is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on self-improvement and leadership. He is an author, award-winning columnist, philosopher, corporate coach, and a renowned public speaker and business consultant. He served as chairman of the Advisory Board of the 1997 Special Olympics World Winter Games and is also a former ambassador to the United Nations Environment Program.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46466 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Consultant and motivational speaker Secretan (The Way of the Tiger) offers a liturgical tome on the exalted state of "Higher Ground Leadership," which he associates with almost every spiritual tradition one can imagine. Job requirements for Higher Ground Leaders include a Christ-like capacity for "loving others unconditionally," a Taoist balance of yin and yang, a Zen knack for "emptying the mind," a Transcendentalist appreciation that "our egos are like waves in the sea" which "return to the ocean—the Universal Soul" and an ability to grok Secretan’s own metaphysics of the "Pre-Probability Plane," aka "the quantum void, before the conscious energy field is activated by intentionality." Secretan’s basic idea, endorsed by lengthy testimonials from executives who have taken his seminars, is to transform the rational, efficient, competitive, profit-driven workplace into an empathetic, humane, cooperative, inspirational "Soulspace." In general, that means a high-minded considerateness towards workers, but the specifics sometimes boil down to advice on office decor—soft curves instead of harsh right angles—or euphemistic language about imposing layoffs "in a graceful, caring and friendly way that honors the souls of those affected and treats them as sacred beings." The point here is to help readers discover their Destiny, Cause and Calling. Secretan’s own Personal Cause Statement—"to inspire others to honor the sacredness in all relationships"—is an apt distillation of the mushy uplift that saturates this rather uninspiring book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap
We all yearn to be inspired. Yet today, many people are drifting in organizations, teams, and families that operate from a place of fear. Within the hearts of people everywhere, there is a yearning for something different. We are looking inward and outward, and we are asking questions. Some of the answers are timeless--the world’s greatest leaders have known them all along.

From Mahatma Gandhi and Thomas Jefferson to Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and other great contemporary leaders--one attribute has been shared: they aimed not to motivate, but to inspire. What are the unique qualities found in these leaders? And how can you apply their style of leadership to your business? Inspire! has the answers.

Inspire! is a book about how to inspire others and ourselves, the requisite for personal and organizational transformation. Based on a lifetime of research, Lance Secretan takes us on a compelling journey to discover what all great, inspiring leaders have known: their Destiny (Why I am here on Earth), their Cause (How I will be while I am here and what I will stand for), and their Calling (What I will do and how I will use my talents and gifts to serve). He shows us clearly, using concrete examples of successful leaders he has worked with, how we can do it, too.

Inspire! introduces a breakthrough leadership practice that leaps past conventional theory by defining a deeper, more enriching kind of leadership that is precisely relevant to our times. Secretan reveals seven essentials of authentic, truthful leadership that inspire everyone and lead to extraordinary personal and organizational effectiveness.

The central idea of contemporary leadership theory is that manipulating, exploiting, and controlling the behavior of others is both useful and acceptable. But this is leadership based on fear and motivation. Higher Ground Leadership suggests we can inspire people by appealing to their hearts and souls. By engaging people on a new level--by honoring, exciting, and nourishing their souls--we can give them more than a reason to work; we can give them a passion for work.

Secretan shows that we can create more productive, fulfilling workplaces that encourage engagement and contribution from employees. We can build workplaces, governments, and countries based on shared best interest and selflessness, rather than self-interest and cynicism. This is the way forward for leaders in every situation who seek to inspire others. Inspire! offers a proven framework for putting passion and meaning back into work--and therefore the world.

Inspire! will stir you to ask brave and important questions. It will transform and inspire you, and therefore others.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Inspire!

Inspire! What Great Leaders Do is a very important book. The ideas it contains have changed our lives and our organizations and the lives of tens of thousands of our employees. It has touched the lives of millions of people whom we serve every day. And it could change your life--and your organization too . . .

Excerpt from the foreword of Inspire! written by 15 CEOs and senior leaders

"Lance Secretan’s message is a great testament to the need for a renewed type of leadership--one that serves with courage, authenticity, service, truth-telling, and love. Our businesses, governments, communities, and the world need this critical mass of inspiration now more than ever before."
—Bill George
former Chair and CEO of Medtronic, author, Authentic Leadership

"Lance Secretan first inspired me in 1996 when I read his book, Reclaiming Higher Ground. I had taken over the Canadian operation of The Home Depot and faced many difficult challenges. His words influenced me. This new book, Inspire!, What Great Leaders Do, is a road map for leaders who want to inspire people in their organizations. Lance has an ability to read the needs of our society. Post Enron and 9/11, leaders need to find better ways of responding to the changing needs of the human spirit. Lance has found that way."
—Annette Verschuren
Division President, Expo Design Center (a Home Depot Company), and Home Depot Canada

"This is a tour de force, a must-read for everyone who leads others--Lance’s groundbreaking work is inspiring people, changing their lives, creating jobs, building organizations, and changing the world!"
—Marianne Williamson
author, Everyday Grace

"Leaders know that they have to be on higher ground and guide others there. That’s the easy part. Knowing what the high ground is--that’s the hard part. Secretan’s Inspire! guides us through the hard part."
—Gerald Schwartz
Founder and CEO, Onex Corporation

"Lance Secretan has touched our leaders with his message of values, spirit, and soul in the workplace, inspiring us to greater levels of achievement. His principles have universal application that can guide any organization to be a workplace that honors the individuals within and those they serve."
—Pam Bilbrey
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Baptist Health Care, Pensacola, Florida

"Inspire! takes on the biggest question facing corporations, nonprofit organizations, and even nations today: how do we overcome fear and tension and replace it with confidence in the potential of the human spirit? Most importantly, Secretan offers a road map for leaders, showing them a way to build confident and inspiring organizations that succeed. What a treasure!"
—Tim Shriver
Chairman, Special Olympics

"I started reading Inspire! and found myself so absorbed that I could not put it down--so much profound thought. Lance introduces a refreshing approach to corporate culture that will not only inspire greatness in organizations but will also help us be more responsible stewards of this planet."
—Don Ziraldo
CEO, Inniskillin Wines

Customer Reviews

What leadership is all about
This is the first thing I have ever read by this author, but INSPIRE: WHAT GREAT LEADERS DO by Lance Secretan will not be the last. This is leadership for the 21st century.

I learned some new terminology here, such as "higher ground leadership" (leading by serving) and "old story leaders" (Jack Welch types who rule with an iron fist and focus solely on the bottom line).

Much of the focus here is on expanding the mission statement. By that I mean, Secretan teaches creating 3 separate statements; destiny, cause and calling. Call it what you want, but the truth is, we all need something to guide us and maintain our focus. As Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else."

I particularly liked the content here about how convoluted and unproductive (and uninspiring) corporate mission statements tend to be. They are all pretty much the same; main focus being a few patronizing remarks to attract shareholders, a quick statement about teamwork, and just for good measure, something about how important our customers are. There's just not a lot there to inspire anyone. I have long maintained, if your corporate mission focuses on building customer loyalty, your employees will perform better, your NOI will go up and your shareholders will be happy. Use your financial statements and analytical tools to attract shareholders, not your mission statement.

Anyone would benefit and learn from this magnificent work, but CEO's in particular. Unfortunately, the smattering of existential eastern philosophy will turn off many CEO's. Let that be their loss, not yours. Read this book.

Leadership in a Bubble
While this book certainly does aim high, it only deals with the idea of leadership in a perfect situation or "bubble" if you will. I have to admit I didn't like the book or the author after reading the first page of the introduction. Secretan makes the assumption that we all live in fear and that there is a shortage of people to inspire us (apparently he is here to fill the void). Perhaps I am a minority, but I do not live in fear and can think of many inspirational people, both in the past and present.

As for the rest of the book, he explains leadership in a very new age and ignorant way. Secretan's basic premise is that we all should love each other and that we should all inspire and be inspired ourselves. And that's great, in a world such as that I doubt we would even need leaders as everyone would do what they are supposed to. But in the real world, leaders are confronted with adverse situations such as dealing with subordinates who are unhappy, tired, depressed, going through a divorce, angry, hate you or other teammates, and etc. This book discusses nothing of how to be a leader in difficult situations, or even how to deal with people that you don't love or love you. This is where the book falls down in my opinion. The true test of leadership comes when times are hard, not when everything is hunky-dory. Further, I think Mr. Secretan is a little arrogant in his definition of Higher Ground leadership. He acts as if he is somehow reinventing the wheel when it comes to leadership. Any of the topics he mentions that are actually useful (such as leadership from the front/ serving your subordinates) are ideas that have been around much longer than this book or Secretan himself.

Aside from Inspires lack of useful leadership information, it also has an interesting take on competition. Secretan seems to think competition is bad, and is does nothing more than feed ones ego. He makes such statements as saying a "call to arms" never inspires and "what's wrong with being number two". Again, perhaps I am the minority but I work with small businesses every day. I can tell you that those who don't actively compete often fail.

In the end, Inspire reads more like a new age self help book. Everything from discussing guided meditation, having a divine conversation with God, discovering your destiny and defining your world by how you deal with terrathreats (read environmentalism). If these things are your cup of tea or you hail from a very leftist/pacifist ideology then I guess this book is for you. However, if you are looking for a book that actually deals with how to be a leader in less than utopian situations then I would advise to look elsewhere.

The Body as a Corporatopn
Tremendous book, I was overwhelmed ( in a wonderful way) by the way the words spoke so directly to my heart and soul. The frequency relationship was direct. I have read the book three times and still feel an energetic response when I think of the applicability to everything that I do. Although Lance is referring to the business or corporate entity, I see the human being as its own grand corporation, with departments/divisions in the respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, skeletal etc. departments. The human being as the microcosm, actually the atom within every cell of the body being the microcosm to the human body, with the family unit, however it is defined to the next step outward. The family unit is the microcosm to the extended family and friends community, this community is the microcosm to the geographic community. The ultimate macrocosm being the universe. All of these aspects of the corporation ( the body) need higher ground leadership. Each cell in our body has a destiny, cause and calling, each grouping of cells, say for example the muscular system has a destiny, cause and calling. All these need to be in alignment with the grander destiny, cause and calling of the person. This is how we actually align and achieve happiness, health and grace in life.
The second and third reading were much more self analytical and I was so inspired by Lance's ability to articulate the meaning and purpose of life. I could go on and on here, I feel this in every cell of my body.