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>> I'm Barry Banther, author of A Leader's Gift: How to Earn the Right to be Followed.
The gift of encouragement is the gift that sometimes a leader pushes back on and says,
Barry, I want my team to not think that I'm going to solve all their problems.
Well, encouragement doesn't mean you're solving their problems.
What do you think are the most important words the people that report to you hear every day?
Well, it's the words they're saying to themselves when no one else is listening.
When they face a problem, when they face an obstacle on the job, are they thinking I've got
to find a way to solve this; maybe my leader can help me,
she'll be here in a moment, she'll be an encouragement.
Or are they thinking I can't let anybody see this,
I've got to cover this up, I've got to hide this.
You have the opportunity to determine what they're thinking
by using this gift of encouragement.
James Madison, the father of our modern currency said the circulation
of confidence is more valuable than the circulation of money.
You, as a leader, get to do that.
You get to ensure the circulation of confidence so how do you do it?
Well, it has to be done at the moment they need it.
You know, after the fact, to encourage someone, I always believed you could do that
or I knew you'd come through; that has some value but it's not very meaningful.
In order to be able to encourage at just the right moment,
it's got to built in like a spreadsheet on your desk.
So the first couple of hours in the morning, I want you to ask yourself this question;
who on my team, either here in the location where work or remotely,
who on my team needs encouragement.
Who's facing an obstacle that I need to show up at just the right moment to let them know
that they've got my confidence and to encourage them and maybe to help them?
Then in the middle of the day, no matter how busy you are,
intentionally walk around, get up and walk around.
See if you can see where there are issues coming up other places where you need
to be an encouragement in that place.
Then at the end of the day, ask yourself this question; who's staying late,
who's had a frustrating afternoon that a word from me could make a difference at this moment;
that's the gift of encouragement.
Here's a phrase I'd like for you to remember;
you're trying to solve the problem and save the person.
You're not overlooking the problem at all but you're trying
to save the person in the part of doing that.
I grew up in a very small part of North Georgia where North Georgia, North Carolina
and South Carolina all come together.
My father ran a sawmill.
We lived in a little house, four room house right next to that sawmill.
The only entertainment we ever had, once a year, a carnival came to town.
You know the kind that you see in a shopping center parking lot today.
The Welch family had a pasture down the railroad tracks from us
and they would set the carnival up, we could hear them setting it up during the day
and then the music would start to play.
Well, as soon as we finished supper, we were all going to walk down the tracks to the carnival.
My mother reminded me it was my night to wash the dishes and so I quickly started washing them
and you might have heard this phrase before,
I was in such a hurry I only gave them a licking of promise, that's about all.
I didn't get them clean.
She inspected the dishes and said this is unacceptable.
She pulled every dish out of the cupboards; she pulled every pot
and pan from underneath the counter.
She put them all out and said while we're at the carnival, you're going to wash all these.
So out they went the front door and down the tracks and I'm washing these dishes
and scrubbing these pots and I go from being angry
to being frustrated to being sad but I got it done.
I knew that I had to get them clean, she's going to inspect them when she comes back.
So finally everything's finished and I thought I'm at least going to go sit on the front porch
and I'll be there when they -- my brothers come back and see how much they had.
As I opened the screen door, to my surprise, my father was sitting on the porch.
He looked at me and he said are you ready to go.
And down to the carnival we went.
This was his philosophy; solve the problem but save the person and the more you do this,
the more you show up with a word of encouragement at just the right moment
when it's needed, the more you create a self-confidence in your team --
now if you've got a self-confident team who believes that you're going to encourage them
and they've learned how to encourage themselves,
what's that going to mean in their customer interactions?
What will that mean in their client engagements?
What will that mean when they work together?
Do you see how this happens?
As you become this kind of leader, as you give this gift of encouragement,
you're modeling for them how they give that gift to themselves and to others and ultimately
to the people that you depend upon to write those checks and make your business successful.
Go to aleadersgift.com; we share a lot of other stories about how this gift
of encouragement's made such a big difference in organizations
and you'll find some tools that will help you do that.
As you nurture this gift and as you give it away, you're well on your way
to becoming the lasting leader that you really want to be.
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