By Dr. Jason Carthen
As a leader there are going to be times in your professional life that you must be mindful that you are guiding extremely talented people that have hopes and dreams along with issues and baggage.
Open the Door of Productivity
The leader that can determine when and how to deal with their followers at critical points of their career development can open the door to greater productivity and higher functioning or set them on a path to complacency and unfulfilled potential. For one of those paths, all it takes is a little love, sprinkled with grace along the way.
Enjoy the True Joy
Let me share an example with you, my daughter absolutely loves sprinkles on her doughnuts as a treat and the way her eyes light up when I order it for her is a true joy for both of us. You can see the anticipation on her face as she waits to see whether the sprinkles will be added…far be it from me to withold that great feeling that comes at such a small price. Here’s the application for us as we lead.
Demonstrate Appropriate Love to Followers
When leaders demonstrate appropriate love toward their followers in the form of encouragement, candor, praise and even rewards, there is a greater likelihood the followers will respond in a positive manner and thereafter seek the same response from the leader when other productivity based interactions (i.e., meetings, task completion, etc.) are set to take place.
Leaders Can Build a Better Follower
My daughter’s story represents a leader’s grace sprinkled in with love along the way because those same talented, gifted followers are going to mess up during their growth and development. The difference is found in the leader that will not withhold the sprinkles of grace and will do what it takes to selflessly build a better follower at the end of the day.
Maybe even a follower that models or emulates that leader and sprinkles their own love and grace to customers, clients and colleagues along the way. Now wouldn’t that make for a healthy and powerful organization in the clear pursuit of its Mission, Vision and dreams….
Please leave a comment or post on my Facebook Page and share with me a recent grace story that you sprinkled in….
