Believing in people

One area where I failed as leader early on in my career was that I had extremely high expectations of myself. I put those same expectations on those around me. I often felt like I was being let down because people were not meeting the same expectations. Now, for those of you who don’t know me personally you may think this is an arrogant statement, but I am a person with such an extreme drive and so much passion I could light the world on fire. The expectations I had for myself were almost superhuman. I had to nearly work myself to death to come close to meeting them.

I used to have a hard time believing in myself. Looking back, I see that I was extremely talented, but I didn’t know where to channel my talents and energy. I was like a top, spinning around in circles. I had so much to give but no real focus on what to aim for. Lucky for me, I had a leader who believed in me. This leader stopped that spinning, and pointed me in the direction where they saw some potential. All I really needed was for someone to believe in me. Someone to infuse a little confidence in me to get me to take risks and become successful. If it weren’t for this leader, I would not be where I am today.

My question to you is: are you putting expectations on your people that are unattainable? Do you believe in the people you are leading? Are you paying enough attention to them so that you can see their talent and potential? Do you share this feedback with people? If you are not believing in people before you see them achieve success you are failing them. They could be the top, who needs someone to stop the spinning and have someone point them in the right direction.

Thank you for reading. I’d love to hear your stories about when someone believed in you, and the impact it made. I’d also like to hear your thoughts on believing in others.