IS THE GOAL YOUR ROLE

One of the most challenging aspects of a leader is getting people to respect you and work hard for you. It is very rare to see your employees to go above and beyond for you. Often times as leader we can be so driven by the numbers, the vision, and the goals that we don’t see the person, we just see the Employee. I have haled many workshops and breakouts sessions for employees and leaders across the country where the employees have said they feel they just get treated like a number. They feel that their supervisors, managers just really don’t care about their well-being. All they care about is hitting the quota, meeting the goal. This is common in many organizations. What we fail to realize is that if we changed how we looked at our employees and start showing that we actually care, this will give them that extra drive to work harder for us and make it easier for you in your role as a leader.

​I will never forget early on in my career as a Retail Sales Trainer. I was hired right out of school, by a gentlemen named Kevin. Kevin thought I had the potential to really help grow his business in Michigan. That was my assignment basically to help increase sales in the state of Michigan. Now did I do my job of trying to increase sales? Sure but did I bust my butt trying to increase sales no. The only reason I did my job was because of Kevin’s position. I mean he was my boss. Because of Kevin’s power he had the authority to hire me or fire me, and because I wanted to get paid. No job no money. My effort towards my position was ok but it was nowhere near Rock Star status. But later on that year something changed. I never forget this day. It was during winter on the day of my grandfather’s funeral. It was one of those snowy days in Michigan that we were accustomed to seeing. The funeral was held in a small church. As the pastor is giving the Eulogy and ask does anyone want to come up and say a few words. Grieving and just heartbroken that I just lost the man who raised me I decided to go up and speak. As I’m speaking reading from a card that I wrote, eyes filled with tears all of a sudden I look up and there at the back of the Church I see Kevin my boss my leader at the Church with tissue in his hands at the funeral. I couldn’t believe that he was actually at the funeral. The funeral was about two hours from his house and mind you it was about 7 inches of snow that day. That moment changed my attitude towards his leadership. That moment changed my work ethic. From that moment on I started to bust my tail and go above and beyond for my leader. I felt compelled to be that Rock Star Employee and make Kevin look like a Rock Star as well by being on his team. I knew that Kevin cared about me as a person. This is why the third key is Care about the person not just the goal in your leadership role