The Era of Inspiration

An NFL coach, airline chairman, and hotel CEO agree: 21st century leadership has moved beyond coercion and motivation to inspiration

By Dov Seidman

By converting from a command-and-control disciplinarian to an inspirational head football coach, the New York Giants' Tom Coughlin led his team to an improbable Super Bowl victory earlier this year. Coughlin's success signals the value of embracing an inspirational approach to leadership in the 21st century.

Despite an impressive win-loss record in 12 years as a National Football League head coach, pundits attacked his inability to connect and unite players. They referred to him as an "autocratic tyrant" and a "distant, dictatorial figure." Criticism of Coughlin surged before the season, and he was nearly fired. So, he changed his leadership habits.

Rather than screaming even louder at his players, Coughlin sought to forge more meaningful connections with them. He instituted an 11-player "leadership council" he regularly huddled with to gauge the team's needs and concerns. He invested more time in sitting down with players to learn about their families and other aspects of their personal lives. Coughlin realized that wielding his position's power by trying to exercise control over his players was a losing proposition. Instead, he now wields power through his players.

"Nobody thought he could change," Giants owner John Mara told Sports Illustrated. "But the changes he made with communication—particularly forming the leadership council on the team—was a good signal to the players that he was not a dictatorial person."

Participation Sports

It's worth noting that while Coughlin's goal, to win the Super Bowl, remained the same, the way he got players to buy into this goal transformed. Of the three ways of getting people to do things—coercion, motivation, and inspiration—Coughlin chose to emphasize the latter source of power, and it paid off.

He's not alone. When a financial analyst asked former Southwest Airlines (LUV) Chairman Herb Kelleher if the company's flat structure made him fear losing control of the organization, he replied: "If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don't need control. They know what needs to be done and they do it. And the more that people will devote themselves to your cause on a voluntary basis, a willing basis, the fewer hierarchies and control mechanisms you need."

Bill Marriott, the 75-year-old CEO of Marriott International (MAR), has also dispensed with traditional hierarchies. He used to go from hotel to hotel with a pencil and paper taking notes for his staff. Now, he blogs. "I'm venturing into uncharted territory," he wrote in his first blog post in January 2007. "A year ago, I didn't even know what a blog was.… Now I know this is where the action is if you want to talk to your customers directly—and hear back from them."

Instead of issuing directives for his staff to execute or relying on his communications team, Marriott is establishing an authentic and direct relationship and two-way dialogue with them and anyone who might want to take a shower in one of his hotel rooms. Marriott understands the power of human connection.

Power: Connect vs. Command

Kelleher, Marriott, Coughlin, and other 21st century leaders inspire the conduct they desire by connecting with their stakeholders' internal belief systems. Coercion and motivation remain necessary and valuable leadership approaches, but they are no longer sufficient on their own because the world has changed.

Exerting power over others through discipline and rewards alone was highly effective when the sources of power—first land, and then capital—were finite. Not surprisingly, we developed leadership habits of thought and behavior—command-and-control, divide and conquer, top-down, one-way messaging, coercion and financial motivation—based on these finite sources of power.