GROWING YOUR PEOPLE’S SKILL

As Theodore Roosevelt, the former American President said, “The most important single ingredient in the formulae of success is knowing how to get along with people”.

Julian Craig also points out, “No matter how much work you can do, no matter how engaging your personality may be, you will not advance far in life/business or any endeavour if you cannot work through others”.  This virtue requires you to see the value in others.  One of the best stories I ever read that illustrated this point was told by a Nurse.

‘During second year of Nursing School, our Professor gave us a quiz.  I breezed through the questions until I read the last one:  What is the name of the woman who cleans the school?  Surely, this was a joke, I thought.  I had seen the cleaning woman several times, but how would I know her name?  I handed in my paper, leaving the last questions blank.  Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question count towards our grade.  “Absolutely”, the Professor said’.

“In your career, you will meet many people.  All are significant.  They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say ‘hello’.  I have never forgotten that lesson.  I also learnt her name was “DOROTHY”.

To become a people’s person, you must first and foremost:

-        Value Yourself:  Recognize your value, believe in your value and always increase your value.

-        Add Value to Others:  To add value to others, you must first value others.  A people’s person must care for others.  It’s about love.  A good leader must care for people, just as they are.  You can give without loving, but when you love, you just must give.

-        When you make contact with people, instead of focusing on yourself.  Search for ways to make people look good.

-        Let people know you need them.  Being wanted and appreciated is a major psychological booster – it does miracle for the ego/self esteem.

-        Compliment people in front of others.  Encouragement gives oxygen to the soul.  It makes people want to do more.

-        Encourage the dreams of others.   To lose a dream is a great loss.  Death is not the greatest loss in life; the greatest loss is what dies inside us when we are alive - according to Norman Cousin.

-        Always give credit to others.

-        Share a secret with someone – it help bonding and boost their self esteem.

-        Do for others what they can’t do for themselves.

-        Listen with your heart.

-        Remember people’s names always.

-        Be the first to help others.

-        Always point out people’s strengths to downplay their weaknesses.

-        Don’t be a ‘know it all’ person.

-        Be genuinely interested in other people.

-        Be humble.  This is the ability to control power, knowing who we are and not bragging about it.  Pride is evidence of low self esteem, while egoism is a manifestation of pride and insecurity.

-        Avoid gossips – Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about themselves, small people talk about others.

-        Help people win – People don’t care how much you know but how much you care.

-        Find the key to people’s heart – what matters most to them – it’s usually, family, health, faith, etc.

-        Give others reputation to uphold – treat a man as he appears to be, and you make him worse.  But treat a man as if he already were what he potentially could be and you make him what he should be.

-        Pass credit to others – when credit is being passed on to other even when the credit goes to you, it creates a biochemistry change in people and create “emotional stamp” that associates you in their mind for ever.

In concluding, nothing of significance can be achieved by an individual working alone.

Chinese Proverb:

          To build for a year         -        grow wheat

          To build for 10 years      -        grow trees

          To build for 100 years and be a people’s person – invest in people. 

True Leadership

Leadership is communicating people’s worth so clearly and vividly that they begin to see it in themselves – it is empowering, caring and inspiring others to find their own voice (or calling).  It is only a secured leader that empowers others.

The difference between two equally talented team is leadership

-         Personnel determines the quality of a Team

-         Vision determines the direction of the Team

-         Work ethics, passion, discipline, etc, determine the performance of the Team

-         Leadership determines the success of the Team.  “An army of sheep led by a lion will always defeat an army of lions led by a sheep”.

-         Great leaders touch the heart before the hand.  They know you cannot move people to action unless you first move them with emotions. The heart comes before the hand.

The six (6) ingredients of success in life are:

(a)           Peace of mind – freedom from fear/anger, or guilt

(b)           Healthy living – mental and physical wellness

(c)           Lasting relationships

(d)           Financial freedom

(e)           Worthy goals and ideas

(f)      Self actualization

Leadership is about growing, learning more.  Abraham Lincoln said “I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser than he was yesterday”.  To do more is to be more.  You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. 

Leadership is about serving others, it is only a life lived for others, that is a life worthwhile.

“There is no office hours for true leaders”-  Cardinal J. Gibson

Great leaders consider other first, they open themselves to other, never violate people trust, never manipulate people, encourage others, constantly add value to others and lastly, treat people with respect.

The three (3) basic qualities people look for in their leaders are:

1.      Direction            –                 vision/purpose

2.      Trust                     –                 security/safety

3.      Hope                   –                 possibility

Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power and energy in the present.  True leaders know that the meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade they are not likely to sit.

True leaders criticize performance but praise performers.  They also inspect what they expect from their followers. 

Authentic leaders are focused, and committed to excellence at all times.  They don’t give excuses because excuses make you weaker, it makes you focus on story rather than the problem and it limits you horizon.  “True leaders do not inflict pain, they share pain”- Max Depree.

Leadership is VISUAL.  People “do what people see”.  No matter what you teach your kids, they always do what they see their parents do.

Great leaders develop people, not fire them.  True leaders re-produce leaders, not followers.  One of the greatest acts of leadership is mentoring.  No matter how much you may learn, achieve/accomplish or accumulate, if it dies with you, then you are a generational failure.  Growth/development is one of the highest calling of leadership.

Greatest accomplishments of leadership is not attaining it, but releasing it.  Leadership is a relay, not a sprint or marathon.  Leadership is about passing on knowledge, expression, wisdom and achievements to the next generation.  Remember, in a relay, the whole Team wins.  

True leaders are givers, they know that the highest riches are beyond the reach of money and are independent of fortune.  It is the mind that makes the body rich.  No man is rich, however much money or land he possesses, who has a poor heart.  No man has ever become rich without enriching others.  “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus, but a moulder of consensus” –  Martin Luther King.

True leaders know the importance of getting along with people.  “No matter how much work you can do, no matter how engaging your personality may be, you will not advance far in life/business if you cannot work through others.

Great leaders are passionate with great love for what they do.  Their job has a higher meaning rather than just a source of livelihood.

Great leadership has a clear thinking perspective, makes complex things simple.  They do not have a scarcity mindset, they share knowledge, information and add value.

They communicate – not just give information, but getting across to people.  Sharing has its own unique magic.  If you share an idea with ten (10) different people, each one of them hears it once, but you hear it 10 times.  True leaders exhibit God mathematics - Joy adds and multiplies, as you divide it to others.

True leaders have high energy level fuelled from love and passion for the job.  They put egoism in check always and have peace of mind, freedom from guilt because decisions are in the interest of the organization, not personnel.  They build on their successes, not sit on it. “There are two (2) ways of spreading light:  to be the candle or the mirror that reflect it”-  Edith Wharton.

Great leaders understand that yesterday’s Team cannot solve today’s challenges except it grows its people.

“A true leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see, and who sees before others see” – Leroy Eimes.

There are three (3) types of leaders:

-         Those who make things happen

-         Those who watch while things happen

-         Those who scratch their heads, when things happen.

Which type of leader are you?  We all should be leaders that make things happen.  If circumstances are not favourable, we should create them.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power” – Abraham Lincoln.