As you take your seat for another Monday morning meeting, it’s likely that you look around the room and see a lot of unexcited faces.
One thing I believe our company does better than 95% of other companies is the way our leaders motivate the employees around them. Each Monday at noon, we hold a “Sensei Session”. These company-wide meetings are a way for our CEO to give company announcements and for anyone in the company to come up and give a presentation on something they’re really passionate about.
Most of our Sensei topics involve personal development, goal setting, nutrition, or productivity hacking, and almost all of them include a motivational video clip. The impact these meetings have on the entire team is invaluable, and your company would benefit greatly from holding your own version of the “Sensei Session”.
The videos below have been used during Sensei’s, retreats, and a variety of planning sessions to help our team get in the zone and “crush it”. So I wanted to compile all of our favorites into 1 post that you can use to help you and your employees feel inspired. Use them to kick off or end a meeting, or send your favorites around the office to help boost everyone’s energy – we also use Bonusly at SnackNation to share positive/motivational messages to improve employee recognition and appreciation. These inspiring & sometimes funny motivational videos for work might just be the exact thing your team needs!
Free bonus: For a simple guide to strategies you can use in the office and with remote teams, request a FREE copy of 20 Simple Ways to Increase Motivation in the Workplace! This downloadable is chock full of easy-to-follow ideas that work for teams of all sizes.
How Incredibly Successful People THINK
Brendon Buchard is a New York Times Best Selling Author and motivational speaker. If you haven’t read Brendon’s book The Charge, I highly recommend it. This is one of my favorite clips on his YouTube channel, which talks about the difference in mindset between a successful person and an unsuccessful person.
Favorite quotes from this video:
“Success has been figured out – it’s a mindset game.”
“Successful people say ‘I want to do that, but I don’t know how to do that’, but instead of stopping they say ‘then my job is to go learn that’. They take their current limitation and they put it on their agenda as a job to do”.
Success is a mindset game Share on XGet Your Free Guide to Boosting Employee Motivation
The Puzzle of Motivation
Are you looking for great team building videos? Dan Pink’s awesome TED Talk above is something that every leader and manager on your team needs to watch. It will challenge your understanding of what motivates people, especially in the workplace.
Favorite quote from this video:
“There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does.”
“That new operating system for our businesses revolves around three elements: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.”
There is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does Share on X
Why Do We Fall
Failure is inevitable in both personal and professional life. What matters isn’t IF you fail… it’s how you respond to that failure. Do you learn from your failures and move forward, or does failure become an excuse to give up entirely?
Favorite quotes from this video:
“Don’t be afraid to fail. You can’t always win, but don’t be afraid of making decisions.”
“If you are not making someone else’s life better, you’re wasting your time.”
Don't be afraid to fail Share on X
Greatness Within
Les Brown is one of my favorite motivational speakers and this video is a compilation of great sound bytes from him.
Favorite quotes from this video:
“A lot of people go to work everyday miserable, and all they do is just talk about is how miserable they are. But they don’t do anything about it.”
“You’ve got remind yourself that you’ve got powers within you, talents within you, that you haven’t even reached for yet.”
You've got to remind yourself that you've got powers within you Share on X
The Happiness Advantage
One of my absolute favorite videos on what happiness truly means. I’ve watched this video at least 10 times and it’s still as impactful as the first time I watched it. Shawn is an amazing storyteller and his light-hearted humor is very engaging.
Favorite quotes from this video:
“If happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there.”
“We’re finding it’s not necessarily the reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality. And if we can change the lens, not only can we change your happiness, we can change every single educational and business outcome at the same time.”
“What we found is that only 25% of job successes are predicted by I.Q. 75% of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support, and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.”
If happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there Share on XGet Your Free Guide to Boosting Employee Motivation
Prove Them Wrong
If you’ve ever had someone tell you that you can’t do something, that your dreams are unrealistic, or that your goals are too high then this video will strike a chord with you. Are you and your team willing to fail over and over again to get to the next level? To be better tomorrow than you are today? Some teamwork videos for employees are just fluff – this one is not.
Favorite quote from this video:
“Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.”
Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better Share on X
A Pep Talk From Kid President to You
If you can watch this video without cracking a smile, you might be a robot. There are a lot of good lessons and laughs in this one. Enjoy!
Favorite quotes from this video:
“Boring is easy, everybody can be boring. But you’re gooder than that.”
“It’s like that dude Journey said, don’t stop believing, unless your dream is stupid. Then you should get a better dream.”
Boring is easy, everybody can be boring Share on X
How Bad Do You Want It?
We all claim to want success, but how much are we really willing to sacrifice to achieve it? This one is a staple for our Sales Team an amazing team motivation video.
Favorite quotes from this video:
“Most of you say you want to be successful, but you don’t want it bad. You just kind of want it. You don’t want it badder than you want to party, you don’t want it is as much as you want to be cool. Most of you don’t want success as much as you want to sleep.”
“If you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to be willing to give up sleep.”
How bad do you want to be successful? Share on X
Dream
This video has over 22 million views on YouTube, and it’s for good reason. I challenge you to watch this and not feel like you’re ready to tackle your goals or finish that project you keep pushing off.
Favorite quote from this video:
“Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, ellusive, god-like feature that only the special among us will ever taste. It’s something that truly exists in all of us.”
Greatness truly exists in all of us Share on X
How To Stay Focused
Another great clip from Brendon. Focus is another crucial element that successful people prioritize.
Favorite quotes from this video:
“Make fewer decisions… the more decisions that we make, the more our brain becomes fatigued.”
“You must define your mission. You need to have a mission for what you’re going to do today. What happens is that most people show up and they go ‘ok, well I guess I’ll do some stuff’, but they have no intention whatsoever so they end up doing too many things that mean nothing towards their mission.”
The more decisions we make, the more our brain becomes fatigued Share on XGet Your Free Guide to Boosting Employee Motivation
Start With Why
Simon Sinek is another amazing public speaker who will get you and your employees motivated. The video above is a shorter excerpt from Simon’s TED talk that argues that Why you do something comes before What and How you do it. Great & short motivational videos help win the battles in business.
Favorite quote from this video:
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
People buy why you do something, not what you do Share on X
Impose Your Will
A projected first round draft pick in the NFL on the verge of becoming a multimillionaire loses everything in the blink of an eye when a head-to-head hit changed Inky Johnson’s life forever. This motivational video is perfect for anyone working that feels like they are starting to burn out. Inky has a way of talking that leaves you fired up and ready to run through a wall. Trust me.
Favorite quote from this video:
“The process saved my life.”
The process saved my life Share on X
Conclusion
Inspirational videos for work can be the perfect remedy to get you and your team out of an energy funk and into a golden mindset. Hopefully you found a new favorite video that you can bookmark to watch again later when you’re in need of a pick-me-up.
Know of any other great motivation videos or some great inspirational team videos we missed here? Let us know in the comments below.
Free Bonus: Motivate your team even more by downloading our Ultimate List of 101 Empowering and Motivational Quotes For Employees. Easily save it on your computer for quick reference or print it and share with your office.
There are so many great ideas to incorporate into the office. Thanks!
Good stuff, thanks for sharing SnackNation.
Just awesome.
Great stuff! Thanks!
Thanks Jackson
Thanks!
Sure thing Margarita 🙂
Just what I needed today!!!
Glad it helped, Jodi!
I cannot wait to share some of these videos with the team! What great inspiration!
Thanks Morgan!
Awesome compilation, Emil. Bookmarked!
Thanks Chris, glad you found this post useful 🙂
Great list! I thought this might be a good addition 🙂
“The Guy Who Came Back…”
https://vimeo.com/161004370
Thanks Daniel. I had a chance to checkout your video – awesome! Love what you’re doing as a motivational speaker.
Great aggregation of content Emil (start with why is one of my motto now). When I failed to achieve my team goals, I realized that it’s because there was a lack of team member motivation, which then turned out to be a lack of clear expectations for each team member. I documented my mistake here: http://wp.me/p7bhAc-J
Thanks Dawn 🙂 And thank you for sharing your experience with setting proper expectations. That’s very valuable for our readers.
Love this! I’ve decided to completely change how I run my meetings – I’m going to show one of these at the start of each. Recently had some out of office days at OFFSITE NYC with the team, have started to use the list they gave for how to structure a meeting, really helpful stuff. –
Thanks for sharing valuable list…
This is truly inspiring stuff! Thank you!!! I live by this stuff and love finding new ways to inspire my workers!!
This is a refreshing change when it comes to motivating your employees. It is true that employees often react differently to all types of media – data power points, hands-on experiences, motivational speakers, and of course, video! Implementing videos such as these into a motivational sales meeting could really boost your sales team’s drive to sell more and be a better employee. Thank you for sharing.
Great stuff! Thanks!
Nice. This blog is very perfect and usefully information
Thank you so much for writing such a wonderful post. This is a refreshing change when it comes to motivating your employees. It is true that employees often react differently to all types of media – data power points, hands-on experiences, motivational speakers, and of course, video! Thank you for sharing.
Really Great. Thanks! Have a Good Day!