Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. – L. David Marquet
Have you ever been so sure that a friend of yours could do something that they themselves couldn’t believe in? Have you ever encouraged an acquaintance and later they said “thank you, it was the best decision of my life and I never would have done it had you not encouraged me”.
It’s human nature to second guess and undervalue ourselves. Granted there are those amongst us who constantly overestimate themselves, but those are rarer occurrences and seldom pan out.
We are starved for encouragement. Look at how schools are structured. The focus is on the negative and on the shortcomings. You did this wrong or you miss managed that etc. It’s probably one of the reasons why so many youths pursue team sports. When the team is doing well everyone on it gets loads of encouragement regardless of performance.
We tend to look up to and listen to the people who lift up our spirits. And those that do so in a believable manner, aka encourage us truthfully, we tend to believe even more so.
A leader who can look at his team mate and see a diamond in the rough and then proceed to polish them will receive more value in return than they could even possibly imagine.
Distribute tasks based on strengths. Put focus on what your people do right and remember to bring past successes and accomplishments up when you see their morale dwindling or when you assign them a difficult task.
Take time to encourage them and be a good “corner man” and you will be surprised what heights they will achieve for you. You’ll do fine.