I recently found this post that suggests practical ways we can be better encouragers to those around us. I have much to learn in this area and you may be able to personally point to my weakness in some of these areas, but we all have room to improve.
1. Active listening. This requires the regular (perhaps daily) discipline of going to those who work for you and checking in with them.
2. Specific praise. Praise early, often, and with specific references. This requires you to be familiar with what is happening in the work of those around you, making active listening all the more valuable.
3. Personal thank-yous. For some leaders, thanking people is a recurring oversight. For others, the ubiquitous nature of e-mail has robbed them of their ability to meaningfully thank others for their hard work. That’s why I am a staunch believer in the power of the hand-written thank-you.
4. Talk about the big picture. How often have you handed a task to a worker, realizing it is mundane, monotonous, perhaps even beneath that worker’s skills and education? Rather than hand it off, sit down with them, explain the task, and then take the extra 30 seconds to say why this seemingly insignificant work plays a very real and important role in the success of the ministry’s bigger vision.
5. Flexibility. Sometimes, the best encouragement we can give means recognizing the people around us are human beings beset with the same headaches and hiccups we deal with. Our flexibility in those situations extends a measure of grace that, in my experience anyway, often is returned to me later with a greater magnitude than I gave.
6. Dig in. What is more discouraging than watching a leader hand off the “lesser” work without chipping in? Dig in to the same work that you ask others around you to do. And when your workload doesn’t permit, be sure those around you understand why you can’t at that particular moment—and that you’re available to intervene should a problem develop.
Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my site, it is about the CresceNet, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . A hug.
ReplyDelete