Part 7 The Third R in leadership
The gurus and masters of the olden days knew that each person had their own truths and their own gifts and “the teacher†should “draw as from a well†from their students. I have read that the word coach, originated in the fourteen hundreds. It was used to describe “taking someone from where they are to where they want to be.â€
Of Course they were talking of a physical carriage drawn by horses. The word was later used to describe a person, a coach, which would help “take someone from where they are to where they want to be.â€
Education means “to draw as if from a well.â€Â this is where we get the word tuition and then we get the word intuition. I hope you can feel where I am going with all this. I want you to visualize ancient monks hundreds of years ago telling their students “grass hopper the answer is within you†like the old Kung Fu show used to say.
Think about the words, apprentice, journeyman and master craftsman. In times of old a young fifteen year old boy would become an apprentice, let’s say of a Master Carpenter. The Master Carpenter was not a Master Craftsman until he created a Master Piece. Then a young boy would move in with him and become a member of his family for around 3-7 years. The young apprentice would be paid in food and logging and would work for the training.
When the lad was trained and was accepted and certified as a carpenter he became a Journeyman. This meant he could “take a journey†and work for himself or another “Master.†He could not yet employ another but he could work for payment. When he created a “Master Piece†he would be considered a “Master Carpenter†and then he could apprentice a young man or he could hire a Journeyman and pay him. Wow!
I say this because if you become a true leader, you will mentor, coach, teach and lead another. And when you do it, it will be because you have mastered communication. You will have mastered listening. You will have mastered intuitively asking the right questions and drawing out of your students their gifts, talents and their truth.
People have seven needs as I see it. This is what makes us all so similar. It is how we meet those needs and the priority they have in our lives that make us different. I am not listing these needs in the order of their importance, like I said everyone places these in different priorities and meets them differently.
- Solid ground or consistency. Things that stay the same and never changes.
- Varity, the spice of life, change.
- Connections.
- The feeling of importance.
- The need to learn.
- The need to grow.
- The need to give.
When you begin to learn your team member’s needs and how they want to meet them and in what priority they place on them you can build rapport. I listed those needs from the least to importance to me.
If you are a leader and you know the needs of your team players, or if you’re a team member and you know the needs of your leader and other team members and their priorities , you will know how to connect with them. If you can connect with them you can influence them in a positive way to help themselves and the team.
These things I know for sure; we can help ourselves by helping others, we can grow ourselves by helping others to grow. Zig Ziglar said it best “you can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want.â€