10 PRINCIPLES OF PEOPLE-BUILDING

Be a people-builder by supporting others. These tips can help.

1. Build up excellence: Think of at least one thing that you find outstanding in someone, and then let them know how excellent they are in that specific way.

2. Give responsibility: Try to help others feel trusted, needed, and appreciated for their obvious strengths. If you’re in a position of authority, you can try to give others responsibility. If you’re leading a team or managing a project, you can encourage the quieter members by asking their opinions. Share decision-making authority as much as possible.

3. Appreciate people for who they are: Being appreciated for what we do is important, but being appreciated for who we are is even more vital.

4. Slow down: It takes time to see people in a true light. It takes slowing down hasty, superficial assumptions. Go slower in your interactions with people and allow God to show you how He sees them.

5. Pause to consider :Think of the positive ways someone has helped you. Think about the good a person has done. Appreciate them.

6. Let go of the past: Be willing to see who the person is today, or the potential of what they can be tomorrow, and don’t let your positive expectations of them today be marred by your past experiences.

7. Extend mercy: Everyone makes mistakes, forgets things, messes up sometimes. How do you want to be treated when you fail? That’s how you should treat others.

8. Drop the labels: Think of how you dislike being labeled. Labels and classifications put people in boxes that can limit their progress. Try to support and encourage others to go further than they’ve gone before.

9. Be there: Sometimes all that someone needs is a listening ear. Whether a coworker or colleague, friend, or family member, be ready to hear them out.

10. Support them in prayer: A little effort behind the scenes can have a great impact; we can help others through our prayers.

Cultivate the qualities you desire in a friend, because someone is looking for you as their friend.—Unknown

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.—Og Mandino (1923–1996)