The Engaging Leader Diary – We all need Reminding!

Do you regularly reflect and remind yourself and your team about why you really do what you do? Journaling regularly and structured team huddles are two ways to help explore and remind ourselves of what is important. By reflecting upon what is really important we develop more clarity, a deeper sense of connection, more energy and resilience.

During my corporate roles, my drivers were selling more vehicles, more confectionery, more biscuits, more pints of beer, taking more cost out of supply bases, negotiating better deals, building new teams, pleasing my boss at appraisal time, getting promoted….  When I ask employees about what drives them they generally say similar things.  How we lose sight of what is really important during the treadmill of our working lives and miss the opportunity to appreciate the good our work brings. How our work for example helps the lives of others and in some cases even the sustainability of our planet. So ensure you take the time to think carefully and remind yourself of why do you really do what you do. This is why when I interviewed VP Sue Stephenson from Ritz Carlton we discussed their inspiring culture of daily huddles. ‘We all need reminding, not telling. Each day we remind ourselves of why we are here and how we can today exceed the unanticipated expectations of our customers’.

I believe at a deep level we all want to make a positive contribution to the world. We just sometimes lose connection of what is important through our experiences. I know if I spend the rest of my life helping leaders to build more engaged and engaging, high performing workplaces with good intentions then I am making a positive contribution to the world.  But it is deeper than this, by doing this I make a contribution by helping people within them to be happier and more engaged at work, they have more energy to live inspiring lives, make bigger contributions in and out of work, be kinder to each other, look after themselves better, become better husbands, wives, parents. As a leader or manager of people this is what you do. Never forget the important role you play in the trajectory of people’s lives through bringing engagement wherever you go. As I said to an Insurance company recently – what you think you sell insurance policies – really? Yes? I thought you enabled people to sleep at night knowing their financial health and well being is protected?

It is for the reasons above that I love the more unexpected feedback from facilitating business programmes. For example ‘My husband would like to say a big thank you – he says I am now a much nicer person to live with’. A PA for the CEO of a large business called me in confidence ‘I had to call you to say a big thank you, you have now given me the boss I always wanted to work for’. A CEO once told me ‘your event was the third most important event of my life’. The other two events were heartbreaking and also life changing – I was deeply honoured to be third! Another announced from a conference stage  ‘thank you Chris Cooper for giving me my confidence back’ These are the memories that will keep me going when I am too old and frail to work! Memories that are far beyond financial benefits.

So the question is why do you deeply do what you do and are you reminding yourself and your people regularly so you never lose site of what is important.

Chris Cooper is an engagement, leadership and team development specialist, coach, workshop facilitator and keynote speaker based in the UK. He is host of the Business Elevation Show the most accessed business show on Voice America with world’s leading on-line platform in 2018 and Co-Author of The Power To Get Things Done (Whether You Feel Like It Or Not). He is a fellow of the Professional Speaking Association and partner of Engagement Multiplier . To contact Chris to see how he and his business can help you : Chris@chriscooper.co.uk