Do you want the people around you, your work team, your family, your community, to reach their greatest potential? If so, do you fully see the people around you? You may see the outward form of people. When you walk into your office, you may say, “There is Bruce. He is our communications manager. I recognize his brown hair and eyes. He is sitting at his desk updating our website.” This may be all true about Bruce, but do you really see Bruce? The most powerful leaders see not just the outward form of people but see their inward form. They fully see people and the depths of who they are.
They know how to tap into the potential of people which will benefit the greater potential of the organization and the mission they serve. Based on the acronym: S-E-E, we will discover three tips for inspiring the potential in people.
Seek Relationships
We often go into our day with a long list of things to do. Last night my husband was sharing his long list for his week ahead. I could feel his anxiety rising as he discussed his list. Can you relate? I know that I can! We also then can feel reward when things are accomplished. Now, it is good to set goals and to accomplish our objectives. However, we must be aware of this mindset distorting our perspective when it comes to people. When people become seen as just objects on our to do list (or sometimes seen as obstacles to our to do list), we lose out on seeing the potential in people.
We do this when we interact with others as a transaction rather than as a relationship. We focus on getting the task done rather than engaging with the person. At work, this happens when we tell someone to get a project done, but then don’t listen to hear their ideas and perspective on the project. We see this in non-profits when we seek money from a donor as a transaction instead of engaging them in their values and passions for the cause. At home, it happens when we treat our children as another item to take care of instead of listening, playing and engaging with them.
When starting your to do list, write “Seek Relationships” at the top. It is the most important perspective and “to do” item that you can take into your day.
Encourage Outcomes
With the to do list mentality, can also come the perspective that the value of people is based on what they accomplish. It is good to celebrate the completion of a work project, getting good grades or winning a game. However, the process in HOW we encourage people to reach objectives, can either inspire their potential or lead to limiting them. When we only focus on people accomplishing a certain task or goal, we never help them uncover their greater value and potential that could have a multiplication effect on many goals.
When working to release a person’s greater potential, focus on internal leadership outcomes, not just tasks. I was working with a leader of an organization to develop a leadership development plan for his coming year. He had a whole list of tasks that he wanted to accomplish. However, these were all outward items to do.
One of his tasks was to complete a strategic plan. A very important task, but the deeper question was: What greater potential in his leadership needed to be tapped? After self-reflection and feedback, he realized that he had strategic and analytical strengths that he was not valuing or using. He spent all day executing and left no time for thinking and planning.
He set an outcome to value his strengths of strategy and analyzing. As he grew in this potential, a strategic plan did happen, but also much more. His staff were empowered to do their jobs instead of him executing for them. This happened because he set an internal outcome, not just an external task.
How will you help others to see the potential within them? Don’t just focus on tasks, but set outcomes that will release their inner potential.
Energize Strengths & Passions
I often see leaders who want to release the potential of people around them, but don’t know where or how to start. We have been so conditioned to just accomplish tasks that we need to learn a new way to think and see. When we focus only on doing, we often end up just striving and feeling depleted. Another perspective requires us to switch our focus to our being (who we are) as our starting point and out of this will come a flow that leads to productivity and creativity.
The best place to start is to help people discover their strengths and passions. There are many resources out there that can be a springboard for people exploring their strengths. Strengths Finder 2.0 is a book with an accompanying assessment that can help uncover strengths. The Values Index is another profile which can help people understand their passions. As people discover more of who they are, as a leader, you can create a culture and structure that allows them to live more authentically in that potential.
How will you help people to use their strengths in their positions? How can you help one team member’s strength support another team member’s weakness? How will you tap into their unique internal motivations and passions that can lead to an on-going reservoir of productivity?
In summary, I encourage you to SEE the people around you. Recently, I was talking to a very accomplished leader. She had been able to fix things for many clients; however, she was depleted, overburdened with responsibility and tired of striving. She realized that she saw herself as invisible to others and based her value only on what others saw in her doing and accomplishing. As a result, she decided that she first needed to see herself. I can also relate. I remember when I had the first realization that I am seen, that I have value in being seen and need to also see myself.
I bless you in your journey to see yourself, to see others, and that you live in the joy of your and others’ potential!