The Greatness Guide, Book 2: 101 More Insights to Get You to World Class (23 page)

I was on my way to a meeting and saw a billboard that caught my eye. Its words: What are you teaching your children? The big idea? Leadership really does begin at home.

What are we teaching our children by the lives we are leading and the examples we are setting? I believe that the best way to influence your kids is to be true to yourself and to lead the best life that you can, so that they will adopt the same values, though their path may be different. What message are you sending to those little leaders who watch your every move and model your every act? Are you showing them what’s possible by being remarkable in each of your pursuits? Or are you teaching them to play small by resigning yourself to average?

The fruit never falls far from the tree, and your children will become a lot more like you than you may believe. You can help your kids get to their greatness. It starts with you leading the way.

Eyes sometimes glaze over on the topic of respect in the workplace. The concept is so obvious that it seems not even worth discussing. We all know that if you treat your people well, they’ll treat your customers well. We all know that employees excel when they feel cared for, trusted and valued. We all get that everyone wants to work within an organization where they can grow, have friends and be themselves. Or do we?

I just read about a study of 370,378 employees performed by Sirota Survey Intelligence on this seemingly obvious subject of respect at work. Guess what? Out of all those human beings polled, only 21 percent of those in non-management posts felt the respect management gave them was at a “very good” level. Maybe the importance of respect within our organizations isn’t as ingrained as we all believe it to be. Splendid opportunity here.

The study confirmed too that the people who felt most respected were also the ones who felt the most loyalty to the companies they worked for. And in a world where attracting—and keeping—superb talent is one of the most critical of all success factors, anything that breeds greater loyalty needs to be done.
So, Respect Rules. Treating people well rocks. Making your teammates feel special is job number one. Because they are special.

Here are a few practical strategies to unleash respect at work:

• Say “please” and “thank you.”
  

• Be on time (punctuality is a mark of the great ones).
  

• Reward people for excellent performance.
  

• Become a brilliant listener (people will love you for it).
  

• Coach the people you work with and ‘help them realize their potential (we all want to get better).
  

• Write thank-you notes.
  

• Promote candor and truth-telling.
  

• Give people permission to take sensible risks and the freedom to fail.
  

• Encourage creativity and authenticity.
  

When people feel respected, they feel better about themselves. And people who feel good, do good.

I saw television star Michael J. Fox being interviewed on NBC the other night. You probably know he has Parkinson’s disease. The condition would knock most of us down. Not M.J.F. He said that he actually felt Parkinson’s brought many blessings into his life, and shared during the interview how it pushed out all the superficial things, making way for much richer ones such as wisdom, understanding and love.

Powerful thought: Life’s most painful experiences are the very circumstances that introduce us to our best. During times of ease, we can get caught up in shallow pursuits and pleasures. Hard times cause us to go deep. The unmeaningful stuff falls aside and we awake to what’s important. Things like family, friends, relationships, presenting our best to the world, enjoying each day’s gifts and leaving the world better than we found it.

Every life is terminal. No matter how long we get to live, we are all headed for the same end. When you remember that before we know it we’ll all be dust, the things that currently limit you (like fear, pride and past disappointments) just fall away. And you discover that the time to shine—and be great—really is now.
So thank you, Michael J. Fox. For showing courage and leadership. For speaking honestly. For being a light in a world with far too much darkness.

Just read something in a Cadillac ad in an issue of
GQ.
It quotes actor Andy Garcia as saying, “It’s important, when going after a goal, to never lose sight of the integrity of the journey.” I so appreciate the way he languaged that. And he’s right. The journey toward any result—whether that result is being amazingly good at what you do for a living or great in the way you conduct your life—is just as important (if not more important) than the end. I guess what I’m inviting you to consider is that the climb offers you far more value and as many rewards as getting to your mountaintop. Why? Because the climb to your ideals shapes your character, offers you opportunities to realize your potential and tests you to see how much you really want to win. It’s the climb that teaches you, transforms you and evokes the genius that inhabits you. You get to develop the Qualities of Greatness, such as perseverance/courage/resilience/compassion/understanding. Sure, getting to the dream feels deliciously wonderful. I’ll be first to agree with you on that. But it doesn’t bring you the same sustained gifts that the journey does. We learn more from the times that test us than we do from times of success.

So the next time you feel impatient or frustrated or hopeless en route to the professional and personal life that you want, remember that precisely where you are might just be the best place you could possibly be. And maybe the journey is better than the destination.