Imports Oriental Blog

Danny Coyle

Over the last few months, I’ve started to realize that people just don’t see how much they can impact the lives of people around them.

One of my great passions is opening people’s eyes to see their true potential.  I love seeing the lights come on when you show them a horizon that is within their grasp, and then watching them reach out and take it.

A few weeks ago, I gathered our organizations leaders for a meeting.  Our organization puts on events.  I split them up into groups of 3, and told them to discuss two questions.

Question 1:  How does my role empower the people who attend our events?

Question 2:  How does my role empower the people who serve on my team?

We defined empowering as the ‘You can do it’ attitude.  The attitude that helps people see that they can accomplish something bigger than themselves.

As we were discussing these questions, I could see that people in the meeting were starting to see their role in new ways. They were starting to see that they don’t just do a job, but that their job has an impact in the future trajectory of those that attend our events.   It was so much fun to watch.

A few of the team members walked into the meeting thinking ‘I just do a job’ and over the course of 2 hour changed to ‘I empower people through my job.’

One of the dangerous assumptions that I made is that everyone on the team is already empowering their team and the attenders. It’s dangerous because they could easily check out of the discussion by saying ‘I don’t empower anyone.’  Thankfully, no one said that, and everyone engaged the question. Also, I had a clear idea of what our organization is supposed to do at a deep level, so I can ask engaging questions that drive us to that purpose.

We will be monitoring and reinforcing these concepts over the next few weeks/months, but I am really excited about where this is going.

Here’s a few questions you can ask yourself about the people on your team:

1. What can you ask your staff to consider that would show them that you see them much larger than they see themselves?
2. Ask your staff how they are furthering the misison of the organization, but in a non-threatening way, that clarifies what success looks like?
3. What does ‘turning the lights on’ mean for your organization?  How do your staff see themselves right now, and how do you want them to see themselves in the future?