Friday, January 27, 2006

Great Progress on Friday

I was very pleased to learn today that one of the actions that I had taken enabled one of the team to shift perspective, gain confidence and add a lilt to the stride.

One of the team suggested that this person, in general, was really quite smart and talented but that this was locked up inside. There had been a lot of feedback through the development planning exercise that indicated a need for more hands-on, tactile learning about what we do. About a week ago, I passed the two folks in the hall and an idea struck which I immediately passed on.

I asked the person who had struggled through some recent learning to take the lead on technical vitality for folks who desired hands-on. I saw him light up, but when I got feedback from his colleague today I realized that by my showing confidence in this person and asking him to take on an important mission that he found himself revitalized. I had some other feedback about this person from another team member which correlated.

I always knew that you needed to empower people to enable them to achieve their best results. But I now realize that you have to assure the confidence in the person is in place to go along with the empowerment.

A vote of confidence in a person turns out to be a very potent message and aids in unlocking and enabling their potential, and is a wonderful complement to empowerment.

I also learned a lesson today about coaching "up." I have been blessed with rich experiences today.

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