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Maximize the
Contribution Of Ourselves and Others
by Christine Harvey
When I started my consulting and training
company, I hired management trainees from various parts of the world. They
came for work experience during their college years or just after graduation
and stayed for several months. It was critical that I get them up to speed
quickly. They typically had no business experience and we needed them
contributing to their maximum ability as fast as possible.
During that time, I discovered a method that increased their
confidence and skill enormously. I had them record in a small notebook two
things they liked doing, or felt a sense of satisfaction at the end of each
day.
What do you think happened? Without exception, regardless of their
nationality, they were unable at first to acknowledge the good things. They
were embarrassed or they got so burdened down with their inabilities that
they couldn’t at first, think of good points.
Sell Self Development
But we
persisted. It was my job to sell them on self-development. In fact, that’s
the first job of every manager. If we can optimize the self-development and
contribution of our employees, we have a win-win situation. I said things
like, “Look, at the beginning of the week you were terrified of the phone.
Now you’re doing so well.”
Acknowledge Strengths And Weaknesses
After a week of recording
two things a day, they had ten strengths or things they enjoyed. After a
month, they had 40. A trend started to develop.
They saw things about themselves that they never knew. We saw things about
them we wouldn't otherwise know. Their self-esteem grew. So did their
contribution to our company.
They looked at their strengths and weaknesses honestly and openly. They
tried to improve their weaknesses and ride on their strengths.
Soon, they were able to talk on the phone and in person, to presidents of
our client companies around the world. They loved the challenges.
Sell High Level Responsibility
They soon
learned to tackle high level responsibilities. After they left, they wrote
to say how extraordinarily their confidence grew and how their goals
progressed.
In the course of life, we meet many types of people. Not all are successful.
Unfortunately, many haven't learned to be as honest with themselves. They
spend more time covering up the weaknesses than improving the strengths.
They haven't realized they can't be all things to all people. In trying to
do that, they destroy their own confidence.
People are a little like
businesses. If we don't identify the strength, we can't make best use of it.
This is true for ourselves and employees. But developing strengths requires
pushing and stretching beyond comfort zones.
We all know from past experience that we feel best about ourselves when
we’re reaching new heights and accomplishing new goals.
Push the Challenge
Threshold
Emerson summed up the reason
quite nicely when he said, “Fear defeats more people than any one single
thing in the world.”
When we look at people who achieve the greatest success in their fields, we
see that they are constantly pushing their challenge threshold
to new heights. In the process they gain
invaluable practice, experience, and skill that helps them in every area of
life.
We need people like this when we pursue profit. But they are not lurking in
every doorway waiting to be hired. They have to be developed.
Influence Others to
Develop Patterns of Highest Acheivement
The
question is how to keep
others and ourselves moving through the challenge thresholds. Why not
emulate the most successful?
Isn't life too short to reinvent the wheel
each time we set out to do things? Surely we can advance faster if we take
the best methods and adapt them to our own needs.
That's exactly why we've written this book. To bring people the best
methods of the successful, which can be adapted quickly and effectively--for
maximum results.
Don't Wait for
Others
Early in our
marriage, my husband Tom and I had a chance to take a trip on the S. S.
France ocean liner. I won the trip in an international sewing competition
earlier that year. Little did I know how this trip would shape our lives.
We were thrilled and
apprehensive at the same time. It would be our first time traveling on a
ship, and we wondered what the other people would be like. We were poor
struggling students at the time. What would they have in common with us, we
wondered?
The S. S. France was
magnificent. From the deck to the dining room, the service was superb. The
decor was fabulous.
The first night of
the voyage we entered the elegant dining room. Each passenger was introduced
from the top of the stairs, then we proceeded to our tables. Ours was a
table for eight, and we met Dr. and Mrs. Lyle, from Fort Worth, Texas, a
couple whose attitude would change our life.
The Lyle’s radiated
something special: a warmth and a sincerity of conviction that most people
didn't have. We discovered that Dr. Lyle, was in his 70’s and had already
contributed much to the medical world in his lifetime. It didn't bother him
that the Great Depression had taken away his hard-earned wealth. He just
started again.
Don’t Let
Excuses Hold You Back
He told us, “You
can't be afraid to do things you want to do. You can't make excuses and hold
yourself back.” The Lyles went on to tell us how they liked doing things for
their church and their community. Their contributions were endless.
Dr. Lyle
worried a lot about young people. If his
patients started smoking when they were young, he would get out a pencil and
paper and say, “Look, here's how much money you can save over 40 years if
you stop smoking now.” The sum was tremendous. He didn't lecture them on
health. He gave them an incentive.
He tried to get
people to plan ahead in their lives. If they were worried about money, as
most people were, he told them to save before they spent. “If you wait to
start saving until after you stop spending, you'll find there never is any
left,” he said. “You have to save first. You have to do it now, no matter
how small your income is,” he told them.
Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back
Dr. Lyle
told us about how, some years ago, he made plans to start a hospital. He had
invited several doctors to join him in the venture. Many of the doctors were
far younger, and had a long future ahead of them. The venture was sound
financially, and it would benefit the community tremendously.
Despite the sound prospects, the other doctors
hesitated. Fear held them back, but it didn't hold back Dr. Lyle. “If you're
going to make major accomplishments in life, you have to take action. You
can't wait for those around you.”
Believe Nothing Is Impossible
Some years later, Dr. and Mrs. Lyle's attitude still rang in our ears: “You
just have to work hard, do what you know is right, and believe that anything
is possible.” When Tom and I moved from California
to New Jersey, the Lyles suggested that we pass
through Colorado and stay at their dude ranch. They wouldn't be there, but
their staff would attend to us. Naturally, we jumped at the chance.
The setting of the ranch in the Rocky Mountains was gorgeous. Our children,
then ages three, six, and seven, thought they were in heaven. We got to know
the staff, and they talked to us about Dr. Lyle.
They said, “You know, that man thinks anything is possible. He wanted to put
a lake in here for fishing and everybody told him it was impossible. He
didn't listen. He just kept searching until he found someone who thought it
was possible.”
“Yes,” I thought, “these are the people who make communities great, who
create jobs and put their wealth to work to benefit all.” Yes, making the
impossible happen does make sense after all. It happens to those who use
courage and conviction.
Take Steps Daily to Maximize
Contribution
It happened to Walt Disney.
He risked his fortune three times in life convincing bankers that animated
cartoons and a fun park for adults and kids, called Disneyland, made sense.
It happened to Madame Curie when she spent
nights awake in her laboratory with the conviction that a new element could
be discovered. To make the impossible happen, we have to take the first
step. As the old adage says, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a
single step.” We don't know what our capabilities are until we try, nor what
they'll develop into as we stretch our challenge threshold.
I remember when I was twelve, my mother
suggested I take a sewing class. No, in fact, she insisted I take a sewing
class. I was terrified. “I won't know anyone or anything. How can I
possibly go?” I protested. She won the battle and I went.
Little did I know that a few years later, my
new skill would land me that first trip to Paris
on the S. S. France in competition with 40,000
people from the Singer Company. That trip led me to Dr. Lyle's philosophies.
Without that trip to Paris, I wouldn't have moved to Europe later, and
probably not have worked in international business.
The first step is most important. The issue
for all of us is to take steps daily to maximize the contribution of
ourselves and others.
Today, in my conference speaking and corporate
training, I have the opportunity to work with a large number of company
directors. They tell us their goals for motivating and training their people
for higher performance. The most successful have several things in common.
Personal Traits Of The Successful
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They are people who have their
end goal clearly in mind.
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They are people who believe
that anything is possible.
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They are people who have
enthusiasm and who take action immediately.
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They are mission oriented.
When I interviewed
John Barfield, former Counselor of the American Embassy in Taiwan, on my
radio program, he endorsed this fact. He said, “The people who are chosen
for highest appointments are mission oriented problem solvers. Our job is to
find these rare ‘mission oriented’ people and influence them”.
Successful people are those who don't settle for second best in their own
performance--they always stretch themselves to new thresholds.
Undoubtedly, you who
are in pursuit of profit already possess many of the qualities. It's people
like you to whom Bill Sykes and I address
our thoughts. For it is you who will make a difference in this world--in
crashing through new thresholds--and encouraging others to do the same.
The first
lesson of sales is to be able to motivate. Motivate yourself, motivate
staff. Motivate the buyer, even your boss.
Remember this
fundamental fact about sales:
Success follows those who motivate
themselves and others
to highest achievement.
ACTION SHEET
Ideas
for Development:
1. Use the small
book system to help people record two things they enjoyed or felt
a sense of satisfaction from at the end of each day.
2. Help them see a
trend in their strengths in order to build skills.
3. Encourage
yourself and others to keep pushing the challenge threshold – move
out of your comfort zone daily.
4. Don’t wait for
others – take action on your own goals.
5. Believe nothing
is impossible.
6. List other
points here:
7.
8.
Of the above ideas,
which one is likely to yield the best results?
What percentage of
sales (or performance) increase could realistically be expected?
How long would it
take: to develop the idea? to get results?
Who would have to
be involved?
What date should we
start?
What is the first
step I should take?
Want to learn
more on this topic? Christine Harvey has written six books in 25 language
that cover many of the concepts found here.
You can get your own copy by
clicking here or visiting our eShop.
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