Pretty much everyone, no matter their business or where they live, understand what it is to be a “10.” 10 is perfection. 10 is what almost everyone wants to be. To be a 10 means you are awesome.
Here’s what you may not know: everyone is a 10.
I know some of you are thinking “he obviously doesn’t know _____________. You go ahead and fill in the blank. BUT….before you do you may want to rethink that a bit. Your willingness to fill in the blank indicates you have some growing left to do as a leader.
You have some growing left to do because the best leaders know that in some way, some how, everyone is a 10. Authentic Servant Leaders work to bring that “10” to the surface. They work to help people find and use their strengths to become a full-fledged 10.
Managers tend to focus on the weakness of their people; leaders focus on their strengths.
You get more from your people by developing and using their strengths then you’ll ever get by trying to develop or eliminate their weaknesses. Stop trying to put square pegs into a round hole; to grow your organization you must learn your people’s strengths, develop their strengths even further and place them in a role where their strengths can be put to use.
Here is a good rule of thumb: invest 70% of your time developing your people’s strengths, 25% of your time helping them learn something new and only 5% of your time should be spent working on their weaknesses.
If you have a team then use the team. Understand that not everyone has to be great at everything. So long as everyone is great at something and you have them doing what they are great at, you’ll have a great team.
As a leader it is your responsibility to to discover their “10” (even if they haven’t) and help them use their “10” in a way that enables them to excel.
Worry less about what your people are and focus more on what they can become. Help your people develop their own vision of a desirable future and then help them achieve it by using their strengths. Every person you will ever lead is in someway a 10, when you help them discover that you will have helped them succeed.
Steve, I approach everyone I meet as having a 10 in them. If I’m there as a coach, Producer of a play, etc.it’s my obligation to unlock their/the production teams dormant potential, bring their talents to the surface, then hold a mirror in front of them and say “What do you see?” or “In what way can you leverage this skill?”
We all have blind spots, even you Steve. 😉
I try not to have blind spots but because I do have a strong coach and mentor… and a bride, I know I DO have blind spots 🙂
And your 100% correct, great leaders and coaches do help their people find their strengths, it is perhaps the most vital role of a leader, certainly of a coach.
Reblogged this on Natasha Foreman Bryant, MBA and commented:
Absolute brilliance!