Looking Ahead

I ran across a quote from former NFL football coach Jimmy Johnson that read: “Treat a person as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a person as if he were where he could be and should be, and he will become what he could be and should be.” That one really hit home for me. 

I think it is easy to look at your team this way. Don’t put too much on the new hire because they are new. Don’t try to empower the associate that has been in the same role for years because they clearly are just happy with what they are doing. When looking at ways to grow your business, only talk to your leadership team; the rest of the staff wouldn’t understand. Wrong!

If you stick with this type of thinking, you are going to lose great people. If you stick with this type of thinking, you are going to find yourself out of business.

I know that we, as leaders, tend to know our teams pretty well and that is important; but I think it is equally important that you don’t let who they are today cloud your view. You need to think about who they could be and help them work towards that. This means empowering the new hire to try new things, this means getting your most tenured team member out of their comfort zone, this means putting trust in your team to partner with you in moving things forward.

You may have a diamond in the rough on your hands that can be your next generation of leader or you might help that person decide that their career path will take them elsewhere; but in either case you are helping that associate be the best whatever they want to be. That sounds pretty great to me.

Onward and Upward