September 2024
“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Sir Isaac Newton 1643-1727
There was a leader I once knew who told me that he was always catching people making mistakes or just plain doing “stuff” wrong. He thought that he had a sixth sense to see all these things going on. I thought about that for a minute and asked him if he ever saw these same people doing anything right? He thought for a minute and responded, “Of course.”
It is important that we see what needs to be done better or correctly, and maybe we need to spend more time recognizing people for what they do right. Perhaps that would lead to a more receptive attitude to our observations on how we can do things better and be a better organization. Praising is a great tool that may not be used enough. After all, we all like to be praised. How many of us are “sick and tired” of all the praise and recognition that we get at work? (Haha!) We can probably never get too much praise and likewise never give too much. Recognition is a universal need. We can undoubtedly get better at giving it!
In further consideration of praise, it is usually good to praise in public, in front of someone’s peers and to also praise in private. On the other hand, unless it is a grievous offense that warrants an immediate response, most reprimands or corrections should be private. No one likes to be embarrassed. Praise twice, reprimand once.
Impatience! Now there is a word that I have struggled with for years and in time I learned that my impatience was serving as a roadblock to my ambitions. What I decided to do about it was to become a better listener. I began listening and gave real thought as to what others were saying. One time in a large group the chair of the committee said that she would like to hear specifically what I had to say on the subject at hand. I admit that I had not even considered my thoughts or my opinion on the subject, as I was listening so intently. I felt a bit embarrassed and hoped that I said enough to get myself respectfully out of the situation. But as the meeting adjourned, I smiled to myself and admitted that maybe for the first time I truly listened, perhaps too much.
There have also been times that I have been so impatient that I have not listened carefully enough. I’m not sure if I was not really interested or that I was so excited to share my thoughts on the subject that I wasn’t patient enough to truly continue to listen for the speaker to complete his/her thoughts. I admit now that I am still a work in progress on the “impatience front.” Darius Foroux tells us in an article some time ago that “Overnight success doesn’t exist.” We must remind ourselves of that whenever we are feeling impatient. It happens to every ambitious person.
Which brings me to another thought: how we spend our time with any of the people we interact with. None of us know how much time we have on this earth. We want to be able to give part of ourselves to our workers every day, knowing that we have valuable work knowledge to pass on to them, and they undoubtedly have valuable information to pass onto us, but it is just not feasible for us to give 100% of our time to team members. To be more effective leaders, we need to invest more time with those few workers who are truly ready to “stand on our shoulders,” don’t you think? As leaders frequently freely give of their time, choosing where we spend our time may be one of the most important things we do. Leaders should share their unique skills and professional expertise, giving of our skills to give back to our people and to our communities, where there is a need. Sometimes it is as simple as a smile and a pat on the back encouraging others.
Yes…. A smile, a pat on the back, encouraging others, while listening to them, and doing these things patiently. Which brings us to our quote of the month….
“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.”
Mary Anne Radmacher
Michael M. Carney mr.mikecarney@gmail.com
A special thank you to my support team!
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