The three Es of Leadership

One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. John O'Donohue

When we think about leadership today, we think about how we can influence others in an inspiring and meaningful way.  Leadership is not about us. It’s more about our team ability to achieve their potential in a nurturing environment. As leaders, we are responsible to creating an environment where people feel inspired and can flourish to a better future. Their success is our success.

So as leaders, how can we create a growth potential environment for our teams? When you ponder about this question, we think about the people in our lives that made a positive difference.  We felt part of a team and we took massive action to grow. 

As I thought about these leaders in my personal life and career, I thought about three key characteristics that separated these people from the rest. They are not new concepts, but when you apply them in your relationships, you will begin to notice a positive difference.

Encouraging

Encouraging leaders are interested in everyone’s aspirations and hopes. The dictionary defines the word encouragement as the ability to inspire with courage, hope and confidence.  Encouragement is about building people up when they need a hand and a heart. We need to stretch a hand to our people to lift them up again. We need to listen with our heart to understand and show empathy to their stories.

What can we do to encourage?

• Communicate everyone value and worth- We need to value open communication and respect the person behind the message.
• Help facilitate action plans to explore each person potential development to the team. Coach when necessary.
• Recognize efforts and improvements. Appreciate and celebrate the small successes.

Enabling

Enabling leaderships is about helping others to experience, know and do things better. It’s what we do when we want to help our team to learn and develop. We enable others to lead better. It’s focusing on people development.  As leaders, we must supply the means and the knowledge for our team to get the work done.

What can we do to enable?

• Share knowledge-we must share relevant information that helps our team to perform their tasks better.
• Provide systems that eliminate non-value added work-Put good people in a bad system, and they will fail.
• Appropriate tools and technologies-We need to provide our team the latest technology to access the information to enhance the customer experience and work more efficiently.

Enlarging

Helping others enlarge themselves is one of the most incredible things any leader or a coach can do. Denis Waitley said,” The greatest achievements are those that benefit others.” As people develop their skills and gifts, they begin to produce better results. They feel like they can contribute to the overall mission. When you enlarge others, you help them with their development and empower them to reach their potential.

What can we do to enlarge?

• See their potential and help develop it.
• Help them create enlarging experiences that create memories.
• Be a good mentor by placing them in a position to succeed.