How To Inspire Others Using the DAC Formula

Inspire others or motivation to succeed

Why is inspiring others the key element in driving a company forward? Why is motivational management important to corporate success? Simply put, the ability to inspire others provides the all-important will to win. 

Much research has been carried out to establish how to develop staff at all levels into top performers. This research clearly identifies two key areas of staff development that are commonly practised by most management personnel. These are:

1. Industry/Corporate/Product/Technical Knowledge

2. Application of that knowledge via earned Skills

The vital factor of success to inspire others

Universal studies were carried out with successful staff employed by a wide variety of industrial organisations. These studies established a number of factors.  Firstly enormous sums had been spent on these two important aspects of personal training.  The training consisted of developing employees knowledge of the industry they worked in and their products. They learned skills and techniques to apply that knowledge.  However, there was a significant factor, unrelated to specific industrial information.  This significant factor determined the difference between those at the pinnacle of their profession and those who, whilst performing reasonably well, could never quite compete with these top performers.

This vital factor was personal motivation or desire to succeed. Indeed, research into highly successful people shows this factor accounted for a much greater proportion of their success than their industrial and product knowledge, or skills.

Motivation to succeed

Not only that, but in top performing individuals or teams, combined with all important and necessary knowledge and skills, motivation to succeed demonstrated it was that aspect that made the significant difference.

I established that motivation or the will to succeed was more than loud music or high fives but comprised of three distinct attributes.  These attributes were drive, attitude and confidence.  Now known internationally as The DAC Factor.  The DAC factor is the key to staff development. It incorporates the need for inspiring others.  It enables outstanding performance. Implementing the DAC factor can be taught, coached and developed. It will enable managers to motivate staff and help them in inspiring others.

The DAC Factor to inspire others

1. Drive

The first of these is to instil in employees the will to win.  This is built on the foundation that they must, first and foremost, have something to aspire to. This part involves expert goal setting and personal planning.  The will to win is determined by the amount of drive, energy or initiatives shown by an individual in pursuit of a personal goal or ambition.

The goals staff are presented with are usually around corporate goals or departmental aims.  They are asked to understand individual performance criteria, company profit forecasts, or revenue or cost saving objectives.  When an employee understands those performance indicators then there is a mistaken belief they have the necessary goals to strive for.

As goals, they will not work. They will create neither drive nor ambition simply because they are corporate and not individual goals.   Managers, often with their bonuses or career progress linked to these goals, are obviously motivated. Expecting the rank and file to be as inspired is naïve. Most employees will perform their duties, but often not with the heart and soul passion required to deliver outstanding performance. To develop employees to aspire to greater things, corporate goals must be linked to personal goals.

2. Attitude

The second stage of motivation, or will, to succeed, is governed by the way in which every individual thinks. This element is about attitude and is the most important of all personal attributes. There is no action that can be taken by the body unless the mind decides that action must be taken. It is the attitude of mind that determines what that action will be and the manner in which it will be taken.

Most people have heard of positive thinking. It is the subject of numerous books and it is a topic that frequently comes up in discussions and training. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the majority of people are habitual negative thinkers. The law of conformity states that people conform to their environment, whatever their environment may be. Most managers are unskilled in attitudinal development.  As a result, staff constantly associate with a negative environment, becoming more negative themselves.  There is no way to get positive results from staff with a negative attitude. To become positive, positive habits must be adopted and there are many success traits which will guarantee results in terms of working in a better frame of mind.

3. Confidence

The third and final element of the DAC factor is confidence. It would be difficult to maintain drive and a positive attitude without it. It is the manager’s role to support and develop confidence in employees.  Managers need to develop their own levels of confidence to enable them to demonstrate to employees it can be done.

The University of Columbia surveyed 2,000 C.E.O’s, from a number of industries asking what did they consider were the major attributes of top producers they have employed or worked with. The results are staggering. The key element of outstanding performers, of top producers, of star personnel was 93% personal motivation. Therefore, in conclusion, the ability of senior leaders in any corporation to inspire their employees in addition to managing the business is of paramount importance.