People succeed far more often than they don’t

Naked Leader Week 809 – 18 February 2019

Time to Read: 75 seconds

“People succeed far more often than they don’t”

John Savage, Curriculum Architect, The National College for Nuclear.

We are partnering with The National College for Nuclear on leadership programmes. As I am sure you can imagine, nuclear is very safety conscious, intense and unique.

On one of our recent planning sessions, much of the discussion turned to #nevergiveup and challenges to avoid and risk etc., when John broke in and said the above words.

There was a short silence – during which I reminded myself I really must read my own books sometime!

And John was and is right.

Especially at this time of bad news media, uncertainty and economic worries, it is so easy to focus on what might go wrong, the importance of persistence etc.

When the simple fact is that in our organisations, in our teams and in our lives, we do far more that is right – helpful, than we do that is unhelpful – ‘wrong’.

It’s just we don’t notice it, or we take it for granted, or we think ‘well, that’s what we are paid for’.

Now, more than ever, do the opposite:

Catch your people doing well and thank them, notice when your teams deliver, and praise them, and celebrate when your organisation achieves a significant outcome. Not only is it motivating, it also helps ensure that people, teams and the organisation are far more likely to do it again.

Because human beings – of every creed, culture and country – work harder when they have a standard to live up to, not down to.

With my thanks to John, and my love and best wishes to you all

David X