Recognising a job well done with a gold star

Seeing is Believing

Did you read my last post on Harnessing Potential? This post is a slightly different spin on the same theme. The idea is this: in order to harness the potential in others, we must first see it, just like LouAnne Johnson in the 90s hit movie Dangerous Minds.

As the story goes, LouAnne (played by the dashing Michelle Pfeiffer) lands a new teaching job at a troubled high school in East Palo Alto, California, a city plagued with gang warfare and racial conflict. Her students were not engaged, had no interest in learning and were extremely disruptive. LouAnne had her work cut out for her.

At first she struggled. A woman from a relatively privileged background, LouAnne had to earn the respect of her students. Things changed when she saw the potential in her students, and told them that they didn’t have to settle for the lives they were living. The defining moment came when she gave everyone in the class A grades, and said it was up to them to keep their A.

As leaders, we often have to believe in our people before our people will believe in themselves. This belief is sometimes at odds with their current level of performance (like believing that they are A-grade students, when they are flunking out). We can even fall into the trap of only seeing people’s flaws and failures. However, if we can see the potential in others and empower people to believe in themselves, we can turn their potential into performance.

I’m interested in your thoughts, when you look at your people do you see A’s or F’s?

Mark Windust is an influential Thought Leader in the areas of Sales Strategy, Sales Leadership and Sales Performance. Since launching his consulting practice in 2007, Mark has worked with 1000's of business leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs’ to help them transform their sales results.