A leaders great priviledge...
The following excerpt is from Billy Oppenheimer's weekly email called "Six and 6".
When Steven Pressfield first submitted his manuscript for his now classic epic novel, Gates of Fire, his agent told him flat out, “Steve, I can’t sell this. You have to cut three hundred pages.” Three hundred pages? “I was shell-shocked,” Pressfield writes. “I fell into depression and despair.” But then he got a hand-written note in the mail from Tom Guinzburg, then the president of Viking Press, one of New York’s most prestigious publishing houses. Guinzburg got his hands on the Gates of Fire manuscript. “There is a first-rate novel in here,” the note said. “I am confident you will pull this off.” “Sometimes it takes another person to believe in us,” Pressfield writes. “That note changed my life. I taped it to the screen of my [computer] and took courage from it every day of the six months it took me to get three hundred pages out of that manuscript.”
One of the greatest privileges a leader has is to call out the gold in another individual.
Almost everyone I know has a story of one person showing belief in them and speaking that belief into their life. This then either changed or set their trajectory for life.
I have referred to it as 'calling out the gold." It is looking at another person and noticing what they do well or what they are uniquely wired to do and then simply saying something like "I have noticed this thing in you. It is really special. I can totally see you using that gift/skill in this way."
Two things are required: 1) Pay attention. Leaders should be the most outward-facing people. Get your eyes off yourself and pay attention to others. 2) When you notice something, call it out!
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One of my weekly disciplines is scouring the internet for articles/tweets I can learn from and/or use with those I work with. Below are two that I hope help encourage and equip you.
Article 1- Fascinating point made here...and so true
Article 2- This is for writers and coaches!
Podcast: Dave Brandt (Pt. 1), Soccer Coach, Bucknell University. Elite leader.
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