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.
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