Leading and instilling motivation in others is a great use of our talents. We discussed helping others learn from failure two weeks ago (here). Last week the topic was sharing experiences to help connect with others (here).

The ultimate most important gift we can give those we lead is to believe in them. Do you believe in those you lead? Are you communicating this well enough?

Many times, young people that are trying to perform have all sorts of negative thoughts going through their head. And if you don’t make it clear that you see greatness in them, then they assume maybe you don’t.

We must show and talk about this belief regardless of outcome! To develop ambition in young people and those we lead, we have a duty to care for and believe in them even when they come up short. Put another way: love is not a reward for performing well. See what and who they can become, and talk belief into them so that they see it and chase it as well.

This is how we help others. Inspire others. Support others. Believe in them. Go lead…#getbetter

If you didn’t read last week’s post, please read it here: Leading Others

Once we allow those we lead to see failure as opportunity, we have a chance to share and connect with them to increase their motivation and deepen our relationship with them. This is one of the most human elements within leadership: to be able to recount where you have been in order to relate to what someone is currently going through. Sharing wisdom to build hope or illuminate a direction for someone.

Two important ways to share from experience:
Share stories about the times you have come up short. It’s so meaningful when leaders can laugh at themselves, or share a time when they experienced failure. This provides real evidence to your followers that they too can make it, they can recover, grow, and still succeed. Seeing others overcome failure can be practice for when they go through those same moments in their journey. This will build resiliency.

Share stories about those times you set goals for yourself and met those goals. Connect with them through the emotion and individual sense of accomplishment that moment gave you when you succeeded at what you set out to achieve. To spark their ambition, they need to see the connection between hard work, failure, and goal setting on an intrinsic level. Past experiences of your hard-earned success will be impactful for their own life and will create a sense of understanding and connection between you both.

Find ways to meet those you lead with what they need in the moment to reinforce their individual ambition. Stories are very powerful. If we can find the right stories to tell, we can grow strong, motivated leaders and build great connection in the process.
#getbetter

Many of us lead others. Team leaders, parents, older siblings, managers, anyone with seniority or experience in a situation. The next three posts will be about leading others through mistakes, helping them deepen their ambition, and guiding them towards what they really want.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Don’t prepare the road for the kid, prepare the kid for the road.” This is difficult when you love and care for someone because your instinct is to protect. Yet we protect the long term interests of the learner if we prepare them for struggle, let them meet that struggle, and then help them through that struggle with support.

When you lead others, let them meet failure and let them digest the failure as feedback. When they fail or make a mistake, help them learn from it. Be clear with them that it’s not the end of the world and it is not a statement on who they are nor does it define them. It is feedback for their behavior, feedback for where they are in their journey towards what they want. Each time they meet failure, it is a chance to try again.

If we can get through to those we lead when they are confronted with failure and help them better understand themselves and the opportunity before them, we are leading quite well. Their response is what matters most, and that positive response will serve them well past any road paving that could have been done up front.
#getbetter