Some team members and colleagues are better than they think they are. For a myriad of reasons, they don’t have the inner confidence and self-esteem that they should. They expect less from themselves than is healthy and underestimate their skills, talents, and potential.
Good leaders don’t accept the low bar these team members have placed on themselves. They make it a point to raise the aspirations of those they believe can do more.
When team members are told by those they respect that they should set their sights higher, set more lofty goals, and prepare themselves for bigger challenges and opportunities than they currently expect, they pause. They want to believe but don’t think of themselves as ready or poised to succeed. That’s where the conviction of the leader makes such a big difference.
Leaders need to make the case. People want to be great but often need a push to become the best versions of themselves. The best leaders describe in vivid detail who they see in front of them, why they believe in this person’s talents, and what success they expect this individual to achieve. They ask them to aspire to be more, and not to accept the criticism and self-doubt we all experience.
Good leaders promise and deliver on providing unique learning and growth opportunities for these supremely talented people, highlighting that not everyone is deserving of such experiences, but they do. Then, they sit back and watch what happens. In many cases, this was all the colleague needed to push through their own self-limiting beliefs and to reset their long-term goals and aspirations.
Leaders who work to raise the aspirations of valued colleagues can have a life-altering impact on their future. Every colleague wants help to unlock the door to personal excellence, but few get it. True leaders get that job done.
When a leader steps up and asks a colleague to raise their aspirations, an internal eruption is often the result. With a champion behind them, people can achieve things they never dreamed possible. In the words of a consummate performer and artist, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Leaders show people the stars and ask them to dream even higher.
Who on your team needs higher aspirations and loftier goals? What are you waiting for? Be the leader they need you to be.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
