How to Judge Others
You can’t do difficult things fast.
If you want to go fast, do something easy.
The need for speed requires repetition, simplicity, and ease.
Fast for you – slow for others:
Arrogance looks for it’s own reflection in others.
Experience makes challenging tasks quick and easy.
Experience walks into a situation and knows the answer. Just connect A with B. Inexperience is thankful. You wonder why they struggled.
Judge team members through the lens of THEIR experience, not yours.
Your gift makes challenge easy.
You have the gift of gab and a team member has the gift of contemplation. Quiet is challenging for you. Silence is easy for them.
Judge people through the lens of THEIR gift.
Strength makes effort easy.
Preparing for a presentation is easy for me because dancing with ideas gives me energy. I’m excited to find simple ways to connect ideas. Research might suck the life out of you.
Judge people by THEIR strengths, not their weaknesses.
Application:
How might you judge others through the lens of their abilities?
Go on a “You’re great at” walk-about today.
- Step out of your office.
- Look people in the eye.
- Smile.
- Say something like, “I think you’re great at IE. meeting deadlines. When you take on a job, I know I can count on you. Keep up the great work.”
- Walk away. Make it a drive-by-encouragement.
Pick up the phone or video call off-site employees.
Terrified:
Some are terrified of a “You’re great at” walk-about. If that’s you, you know what slow and difficult feels like. Could you start with a “You’re great at” e-mail?
Wrong people:
Persistent frustration with team members means…
- They’re the wrong team members. Manage them out.
- Training, mentoring, or coaching are necessary.
- Modify or change their responsibilities.
What shifts for you when you evaluate others through the lens of their experience, gift, or strengths?
How do leaders bring out the best in others?
This post was on my one monitor while coaching this AM – they are in a toxic environment and participating. Great timing, convicting words — if drive by encouraging feels so good to the driver and the receiver, why is so hard to start the engine to the car?
Thanks Scott. It’s true. Some people aren’t comfortable looking you in the eye and saying something good. Maybe the cure is to just tighten your belt and do it.
I’ve read that people who point out a problem are viewed as more powerful. Maybe we’re afraid of looking weak.
Maybe we can’t pat ourselves on the back so we can’t pat others.
Cheers
How do leaders bring out the best in others?
I think leaders most often do one of three things.
1. They challenge people to pursue bigger goals and ideals
2. They build people’s confidence
3. The coach, mentor teach. etc.
But first leaders need to diagnose the person/situation and decide which C (challenge, confidence, coach) is needed.
Thanks Paul. Gotta love alliteration. I thought about the importance and value of relationship when we’re choosing a strategy. It sure helps to know the people we’re helping to grow.
When the challenge is perfectly aligned with the person’s confidence/skills and interests–it may put the person in the “FLOW” state.
Pretty much what Paul stated.
How do leaders bring out the best in others? I like to challenge them with something they haven’t done and explain I believe they are capable, it helps them build confidence in themselves. Often times a simple task can start someone on a new journey.
Sometimes just standing back and watching other’s conduct themselves can lead us to offering opportunities they don’t know exists
Good afternoon,
I enjoyed reading your piece.
It would appear that you are speaking of leaders who embrace subordinates true nature. The problem with that is most people do not identify with their true nature. Most people have no idea of the truth of who they really are. It takes a certain type of person to “think” about him or herself on a deeper level. An individual of that nature is spiritual and knows that there is more to life than meets the eye. Perhaps one who is going through a spiritual awakening? You also seem to be describing an organization that has a “humane culture.” Most organizations that I have been a part of did not have a “humane culture.” Leaders and managers had a business-as-usual mindset, mentality and attitude. It would be wonderful to become a member of an organization that cared about me on a personal level. I would love to be a Founder and CEO of an organization that was concerned with an employee’s development and growth. It takes years for a person to develop, grow and evolve into their true nature. Therefore, it would take years for a leader or manager to understand and learn about their subordinates.
I did not learn until the age of 45 that I was a “big picture/see the concept” thinker. I am now a 53-year-old woman who knows, I AM GREATNESS. However, I had to go through the trials and tribulations of life to arrive at that mindset. Being an employee did not teach me that. Life did. Or as the saying goes, “When the student is ready the teacher appears.” This saying isn’t really about two different individuals. The student and the teacher are one in the same. The student was a slave to his/her mindset and now masters his/her mindset based on proper knowledge and life experiences; as a result truth now rises and manifests itself into reality. The student is now thinking from a level of higher consciousness.
Nothing happens overnight or in the blink of an eye. We as human beings are a part of the process of life. Life is a process. That is reality. No man-made system can/will ever game the realities of life.
Life is about a journey, not a job. Of course our culture dictates we work. Yet, we all should grow within this process, not wake-up every day, punch a clock and collect a paycheck. That would make people slaves. No one was born to be an economic slave.
It’s true, but so many of us fail to understand that inexperience makes the challenging task so hard and slow, thanks for the Idea.
“How do leaders bring out the best in others?”
I remember the words of Wolverine (back in the comic days, not the films!)
“I’m the best there is at what I do…”
I know in my organisation, I AM the best there is at what I do, but I remember they people sat next to me, across from me, along the hall from me. Well, they’re the best there is at what THEY do. So I bring my best work to support them to do their best work.
A Great thought, keynote statement, and exposition by others, especially that by Z.K. Green.
Coincidentally, I was thinking along parallel lines just yesterday and today about a colleague. She is a different. Aggravating, arrogant, and Millennially self-rightious; but she is she and Great too in her own way and viewpoint, despite my distaste for it. I truly recognize this reality.
Everything changes for me when I look people through their strengths, gifts and experience.
I call it to consider the ‘reality’ of other person. Whether right or wrong, good or bad, whatever a person is doing or feeling, it is his/her reality. We are unjust when we do not consider it and this gives rise to all the problems.