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Leadership and Culture – Inspiring Others

  • December 18, 2018
  • Carlos Ray Ruiz
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“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves”

-Stephen Covey

By MBB – Carlos Ray Ruiz

There are many words, ideas and information that we come across every day, however the term “sink in” applies to the moment when those ideas or concepts have the power to drive change or to do something meaningful in our lives or in the lives of others.

There is a phrase that not too long ago really sank in in the area of leadership. This phrase is “To Inspire Others”. Whether you do it through your words or through your actions inspiration is a very powerful characteristic of any good leader.

When I think about my life, I can easily identify the moments but more important the people that inspired me. Sometimes my coaches inspired me to become better through delivering everything I got during a football game or practice, maybe it was that teacher that through his passion for what he said inspired me to joyfully read a book that helped me pass my history test.

I now see that inspiring others is a powerful gift, I can see how what I do but more important who I am could inspire others to overcome adversity or perhaps to strive to a better life or to grow in areas where that person needs to be developed.
Sometimes we don’t understand and we underestimate the impact that our actions and our words may have in others.

If we reflect deeper about how to inspire others, we could identify three important behaviors that any leader could consciously practice:

1. Passion. Most people that have inspired me have shown a passion for what they do. Therefore if we want to inspire others we should also display a passion for what we genuinely believe is true and right according to our values and character.

2. Words of encouragement.

What does encouragement mean?
Encouraging: Giving Hope or Promise.

When you are in a position of leadership you must recognize that what you say has a big impact on the people you are leading. That can open great opportunities to encourage people to accomplish great things. Use that as a way to inspire and “push” others to do what they themselves sometimes don’t see they are capable to achieve.

“Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves”

3. Walk the Talk. It is inspiring when you see people who not only talk but more important that back up their talking with actions, specially under difficult circumstances, that help others to believe and to aspire to “apply” and to replicate whatever action or behavior they are seeing in you.

My final thought is that we should continually look for opportunities to turn insignificant moments to moments where we could inspire others. I believe that there are always people around us in need to be inspired by the gifts and talents that we have as leaders and certainly we must also pay attention to be inspired by the people that we respect and admire in areas where we need to be developed.

As one of my great mentors and friend always says:

Remember that leadership is action not position.

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Carlos Ray Ruiz

I am currently serving as the Director of Global Strategy and Organizational Change at humanitarian international health organization. I serve by orchestrating transformational change projects across the organization in order to achieve our aspirational goals. I help the organization refine its strategy and strategic plan. I coordinate all departments and country offices as they implement new systems and processes that transform their way of working, improve effectiveness, and enable significant scale.

Previously I served for 8 years as the Director of Continuous Improvement for World Vision International where I had the responsibility to foster a culture of Continuous Improvement. I collaborated with leaders, teams, and individuals across the organization and around the world to guide them in applying continuous improvement principles and tools.

Based on more than 20 years of experience in the areas of strategy, leadership/organizational development, and, continuous improvement, I know that in order to deeply transform any organization you must consider the context, culture, and the current state of the organization.

I have led numerous continuous improvement workshops ( Kaizens) around the world, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. I have coached and developed hundreds of leaders. I have also certified hundreds of White Belts, Yellow Belts, Green Belts, Black Belts, and Master Black Belts around the world.

Nothing energizes me more than to work with diverse cross-functional teams from different nationalities around the world and to witness how regardless of their background they voluntarily embrace and develop a culture where waste, inefficiencies, risks, and errors are seen as treasures that they themselves can fix or eliminate.

I have worked with multiple units to improve their door-to-door processes in areas like procurement, finance, human resources, operations, grants, sponsorship, strategy, etc.

By ensuring the leaders' engagement, cross-functional participation, and rigorous adherence to the "Kaizen Rules" and the DMAIC methodology (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control), the teams are able to significantly improve in the areas of safety, quality, delivery, and cost.

I am very passionate about Strategy, leadership/organizational development, and continuous improvement. I am convinced that these are 3 pillars that can significantly contribute to transforming and improving any individual, team, or organization.

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