I recently delivered a sixty minute presentation on Influential Leadership to about sixty electrical contractors at their regional conference held at the Oregon Coast.

I am very glad that I have progressed enough in my public speaking abilities that I am able to laugh at myself with no problem. This is a really good thing because I often find myself with these opportunities.

This presentation was no different. As often happens to me, things pop into my head and I end up going a little “off-script.”  I do not remember exactly what I was talking about at the time but the word that I wanted to say was “motivated.”  What came out was a word that to the best of my recollection, I have never said or even heard. The word was MOTIFIED.

Many people would simply correct themselves and move on, but not me.  I could see some grins on the faces in the room and am pretty sure I even heard a few chuckles. Take advantage of a captured audience .. right?  I paused and asked the group, “what did I just day?”  More than one spoke the word back to me just as I had delivered it.

As I later reflected on my presentation, I realized that this ten or fifteen seconds of authenticity really helped me to connect with the audience.  I am sure that I will use this story in the future at one time or another so it got me thinking … I better be able to define this word.

Malcolm Gladwell, author of some of the most famous business books of our time, The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, tells the story of how he would invent words and insert them into his writings – “tipping point” being one of the most famous.  He would then see if others would use the word in their own work later.  No coincidence that I recently learned of this reading “The Impact Equation” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.  (Stay tuned for a 4 post series on The Impact Equation).

So what does “motified” mean?  Well I guess the first part is easy – Motivation.  Now comes the fun part … how do we tie a word that ends in “fied” into the definition? Unified.  Satisfied.  Certified.  Magnified.  There are certainly a number of words one could use.  But what might just stick?

I am certainly open to your thoughts, but I am going to go with satisfied.  Why do we try and motivate people?  In most cases, because we want them to achieve more in working towards a desired outcome.  If we achieve that desired outcome, we are satisfied.  Seems logical enough – now how do we use it?

When we motivate someone, it typically is to get them to start something new or do more of what they are already doing.  But motivation only lasts as long as the motivator keeps motivating.  What if we did such an incredible job of motivation that there was an actual change in the person being motivated.  Not just short term, but long term.

To motivate is to “get them going” but when they are motified, they keep going.”  I like that.  I think lots of people have motivated me in my life but very few have motified me. I want to be a motifier, not a motivator.

OK – we had a little fun in this post but think about how important words, and more importantly their meanings, are.  Remember what my speech was on that resulted in the creation of this word – Influential Leadership.  If you truly want to influence others, you better be able to motify them.

Who do you know that needs to be MOTIFIED?

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Barry Smith   www.buildingwhatmatters.com      3/11/13            photo by author