Amateur managers, coaches and leaders tend to favor either a logic-based approach to performance or an emotional-based approach. The pros know the magic is in the mix. When it comes to strategic planning and business acumen, straight logic is essential. Emotion creates confusion when it comes to linear thought. This is why amateurs in the business world have repeated the idea that there is no place for emotion in business. Professional leaders know this is ridiculous.

As you know, human beings are emotional creatures driven by emotional motivators like love, recognition, belonging, pride, values, etc. The list goes on and on. To ignore the role emotion plays in performance is to disregard the power of the fire that burns within a person’s soul. The real distinction between amateur leaders and pros is that amateurs motivate through logic and the great ones motivate through emotion. Logic is great for planning, but weak for motivation. Trying to inspire an emotional creature by appealing to their sense of logic is amateur at best, and stupid at worst. In twenty years of studying and working with leaders, only a small percentage has really understood this in the business world.

In the world of professional sports, it’s a different story. Many top coaches use emotional motivation brilliantly. The best example may be Herb Brooks, who motivated the U.S. Olympic Hockey team in 1980 to pull one of the greatest upsets in history. Emotional motivation has the power to drive a team beyond what they actually believe is possible. The sheer force of the collective emotion is so overwhelming that it mentally elevates the consciousness of the individual performers, which enables them to tap into a higher level of intelligence.

The secular philosophy is that the performers are able to access more of their brains when they are operating in this altered state of consciousness. The spiritual philosophy says that performers have raised their rates of vibration to the same frequency as the force that created the universe. While champions’ belief in the source of this power varies, they all know that the process begins with emotional motivation.

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