| | You Have to Believe to Succeed.
Napolean Hill, in his best selling book Think and Grow Rich wrote "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe it can achieve." In fact I wrote about this very idea a few weeks ago (see Why you missed your mark for 2007, and what you can do Today to improve performance and production in 2008). However, I failed to mention a very important caveat to this principle.
If you consider yourself a leader, this may be the most important thing you ever read from this site, or anywhere else for that matter. More often than not successful people start off lacking a strong belief in themselves and their value at work. Here is the kicker. Despite the fact that they did not believe in themselves, other people did. Often times that person was in a leadership role.
I recently heard a story about a young 19 year old athlete competing in Triple A baseball. At first he was excited. He had reached a level that few people his age had ever achieved. Things were going great, but it didn't last long. He soon realized that quality of pitching was gretaer than any he had experienced before. He struggled hitting the curve ball and he soon became very discouraged. Within a few months of the happiest day of his career thr fans started booing, and the press started to question his ability. Completeley discouraged, he wandered into his coaches office to tell him he was quitting the team. He explained to his coach that he didn't think he could play in this league and he was tired of hearing boos from the home crowd.
His coach just listened and smiled. He told the young player that he understood what he was going through, but he re-assured him that he was a good player with a lot of talent. He said to the young center fielder that he believed in him, and he encouraged the young man to begin to believe in himself. The words of encouragement, backed by a sincere belief in his future success convinced Willie Mays to not quit in his rookie year and he went on to have a Hall of Fame Career.
As a leader, you have to expect great things from your people, and you have to believe that they can achieve them. They may not believe you at first, but you have to be strong in your belief. If you look around at your team, and find that you don't believe in them you are left with only two choices Change your mind, or change your people. (Hint: It might be easier to change your mind.)
Call or Send Me an Email so we can start Building a Better Workforce for you.
Post your comments here
|
|
| |
