Bring out the Best

One quality that good leaders seem to have in common is the ability to bring out the best in others. Whether they are bosses, managers, team captains, or role models, inevitably they have learned to not think in terms of problems, but rather in terms of people and their potential.

When those leaders see others doing something wrong or working inefficiently, rather than fuming or stepping in to do the job themselves, they challenge those people to keep trying until they get it right, and then praise them when they do.

The bosses could probably do those particular tasks better or quicker, but if they made a habit of that, they would end up trying to do everything themselves. When there is a lot to do, the leader needs to delegate, and that involves trust, belief, training, and commendation. The leader needs to provide whatever training may be missing and trust the work to others; the people doing the work need to believe they can succeed; and then the leader needs to commend the effort, even if it’s not perfect. Over time, the people doing the work will usually learn to get it right, but not many will continue to try their best if all they hear is what they did wrong or how they could have done better.

No matter how otherwise talented leaders may be, if they can’t work well with people they will soon find themselves disliked and distrusted by those they are trying to lead. People trust those who they know care about them, and such trust is built by their leader taking a personal interest, showing concern, and being generous with praise and appreciation. People who consistently get those types of positive reinforcement usually do their best to live up to their boss’s expectations.

The people expert Dale Carnegie gave an example of a boss who understood that principle. Gunter Schmidt was a store manager, and he had a problem: one of his employees was careless about putting the correct prices on the display shelves. Reminders and admonitions didn’t work, so after receiving one too many customer complaints Schmidt finally called the employee into his office. Rather than giving her the telling-off she expected, however, he told her that he was appointing her “supervisor of price tag posting” for the entire store. It was now her responsibility to keep all the shelves properly tagged—and she fulfilled that role satisfactorily from that day on. All she had needed was for her boss to express trust by giving her a little more responsibility.

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1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV – Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV – Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV – And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.