Nearly a third of Human Resource professionals are most inspired by friends, with only five percent claiming to be inspired by their bosses, according to a survey conducted at HRD by Video Arts.

Fortunately, while our bosses are not the most inspirational people in our lives, HR professionals stated that the second most inspirational people were ‘colleagues’ with 20 percent of respondents stating the workplace as where they are most inspired. This ranked third after holidays (28 percent) and in the bath/shower (23 percent) as places of inspiration.

Other findings included:
– Respondents cited sports people, musicians, comedians, gurus, thought leaders and successful people as being inspirational
– Only five percent of respondents claimed their mother as a source of inspiration, compared with 11 percent for fathers
– Only five percent of respondents claimed that teachers and lecturers had inspired them
– The most commonly cited ‘inspiring celebrities’ were Madonna, Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela and Princess Diana
– Places people feel most inspired included cutting the lawn, listening to music, singing on stage, and surprisingly on public transport (7 percent).