In my last job and throughout my military career, I was a teacher, mentor, and coach.
I would argue that the only way to influence people positively is to coach, teach, and mentor them. Additionally, you must be able to counsel your junior leaders.
Thus, counseling is about helping those junior leaders make needed changes in ways of thinks, feeling, and behaving, and also working toward setting viable goals. Including developing strategies and plans to accomplish those goals.
I’ve always believed in the U.S. Army’s “Be all you can be” recruiting Advertisement that challenged people to push themselves beyond their limits. Yet, the only way to find out your true potential is to push yourself past the fear, anxiety, stress, pain, and overall discomfort.
The problem with most people today, they are afraid to be uncomfortable. However, to Be all that you can be means taking the chance of finding out what you are truly made of.
Influencing to find Potential
The average person will not push themselves to find out what they are truly made of or find their true potential. Yet, good leaders will constantly challenge themselves to find out their true potential. Even so, that leader will influence others to find out their true potential.
“Coaching is unlocking an individual’s potential to maximize their performance.” – The leader is helping them learn rather than teaching them.
Furthermore, the leader contributions to the team by setting goals, then coaches’ individuals to see themselves achieving them. Yet, sometimes, just getting individuals on the path is a challenge.
Let’s set the bar high; however, let’s start low and or small to build confidence in our abilities.
In Airborne School, the three-week course starts with the first week being “Ground week.” Ground week is learning basic Parachute Landing Falls (PLF), then on the second week, you learn actions inside the aircraft and jump commands. Lastly, week three is jump week, where everything comes together.
Now, imagine if we set our goals that way. Start from the lowest point, learning as much as possible, and then celebrate the successes and learning from the failures. Yet, whether we win or fail, we must continue evaluating ourselves.
For instance, I look at failure as the opportunity to learn. In contrast, I believe in celebrating my success and also learning why I was successful? Why did I win? Essentially, if I follow the same process, would I get the same results.
Keep rising to the top and be clear in what success looks like. In essence, you are on the right track of being all that you can be.
Understanding your Why
I’ve always been a dreamer, essentially dreaming about my goals until they were clear as day. However, we must understand why that goal is important to us. Because when things get rough, rugged, and or complicated. We know why we started the journey. We have enough reasons to keep going.
Again, be all that you can be in life. You only have one shot at life, so don’t look back, keep going forward. We don’t get promoted at work just because of our performance; it’s our potential.
Your supervisors (people above you) will recognize that you are an asset when you have the attitude of being all you can be. Your peers will realize that sense of urgency in you, which becomes contagious, which encourages healthy competition to make the team better, and the bar gets raised.
In the end, Be all that you can be means taking the chance of finding out what you are truly made of. Remember, there are no do-overs in life; take the jump and push through the adversity, come out the other end, someone you can be proud of when you look in the mirror.