“Chris?”
“Morning.”
“You know, umm, something strange happened to me this morning.”
“Was it a dream when you see yourself standing in sort of sun god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?”
“No!”
“Why am I the only person who has that dream?”
This is an exchange from the movie Real Genius. Val Kilmer speaks of his dream. Please do not get caught up in the words and phrases of the early part of the exchange, but rather his comment of why he is the only one with that dream. Every manager and leader who works on this planet has unique needs, wants and desires. They have their own triggers, their own motivations. And we love as trainers and facilitators to put them in a room for 6.5 hours and place them in boxes, setting parameters of how to accomplish “X” and to follow an established set of rules to get the “X” done.
Before I go any deeper into the rabbit hole, let me be clear; I would not argue there is an need for consistency, accountability and the operational equation of a+b=c. There will always be times and circumstances which must follow prescribed protocol. Standards which need to be maintained and complied with are essential to successful organizations. Flawless execution of critical retail behavior whether it is sales oriented or managerial is and will ever be absolutely necessary.
Life is unscripted. It moves and it changes. The teletype sheet you rip off after showering, getting your coffee and jumping into your car is never what you get when you open the door to your store. It changes, moves, flexes and forces you to be a “different” type of manager or leader you may have intended to be when you woke up.
A peer told me once that leadership is not what you do, it’s who you are. This suggests a need to be authentic, or perhaps better said, true to your self and what makes you “you” when you have to make a decision. Anyone who has had even two seconds in selling knows personality plays a part in selling. I would expand this by saying, personality plays in part in managing and leading others. Agree or disagree?
Here is where I want to take you – everyone, particularly their abilities are different and are always at different places given what has occurred in their lives. Their motivations differ. They see the world through a different lens than you. They have a different dream than you. How are you encouraging this? If you are a leader of others, are you encouraging this unique-ness? Are you leveraging the very power they can exhibit when not being put into a proverbial box. I am not “tooting” my own horn when I state one of the many things I enjoy and explore when working with learners is “what if” and hearing what is shared by all the brain trust in the room. I let them (when I can) dictate the pace and impact of the learning experience. I know training has a focus, time frame and need for intended return on investment. Is it the “thing” that has supreme focus or is the ability of everyone to share their innovation to make this, that, the “thing” or anything successful. If you let them share, it is amazing what each person may bring to the table…if you let it happen. It doesn’t always happen. I find the frequency of this happening is proportionate the amount of times you encourage this activity AND then respond to it. That is key. Do it once and do nothing with the information – forget doing it again. Do it once, listen, share it and place it into the momentum and you will get responses again and again.
This has been on my mind. A twenty-something manager doesn’t have the same dream (focus/topic/motivation) as me and I am trying to influence their decision making.
So here are some thoughts to share when you act as leader…
Be genuine, be real. Let that be your course. Find out about your team and what makes them genuine. Let authenticity be part of your everyday environment.
Think what if. Always challenge how things work, could work, may work, should work. Let the team have a say and challenge their abilities to problem solve. Maybe their dream can influence your goal.
Don’t cloud the mission with lots of parts. Don’t make your message or goals seem so complicated, your team shuts down. The simpler the “core”, the easier it is to get both buy-in and collaboration.
That’s it. I dream different than others in my life. How does what I share in conjunction to what I let others share in return matter? I think that is big. All of this when I was walking my dog this morning. I don’t think my dog Sophie likes pickles, wears robes or has even seen a pyramid. I haven’t asked. Or maybe she is the only dog who has that dream?
Cheers