Never Give Up, Never Never Give Up
These famous words were first stated by Winston Churchill during World War II. I could not help but think about this statement as I hear from business associates and friends about how bad things are in the world of business today. It is time for some leader to take a stand and tell the world that things will get better – as long as we don’t give up.
Yes, there are things going on in the economy, in society and probably in families that don’t make a lot of sense to the rational person. However, this is the time to realize that adversity comes to teach us how to handle it. It is time to develop a strong character. Leaders look forward to the opportunity of proving both to their teams and most importantly to themselves – that they can handle the situations.
The one thing that does drive me crazy are the people who believe in perfection – with everyone except themselves. A prime example is how so called sports fans can “boo” a freshman quarterback who is learning how to be a quarterback in tough game. The fans seem to expect that a player should be perfect and make no mistakes – even if they make mistakes everyday.
I see this in politics and business management on a regular basis – expecting perfection from everyone – even if others are not trained, not experienced, or have the “wrong” set of strengths for a particular job or project. The faster we learn how to recognize progress and improvement – the fastest people will grow and learn and ultimately perform at much higher levels.
Be a leader that recognizes the progress that your team members are making and continue to encourage their growth and learning. This will allow for random thoughts and actions to become sources of wisdom rather than sources of frustration and blame. Yes, blame is the escape mode of the poor leader. These people have to assign blame to anything that happens or performance that is not 100% to their standards. These same standards that are mostly keep secret until someone has not met the standard – then they learn about it AFTER THE FACT.
Great leaders are ones who are accountable for their results, share the glory of success, encourage people to continue growing and improving, and they certainly live by the statement made famous by Winston Churchill. It is an important and simple saying that we need to embrace during these difficult and challenging times.
Voss Graham
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Tags: building character, Dealing with tough times
