Power Play: Arouse in others the desire to be great

My Power heroes always make me want to reach for the stars and I am constantly trying to find ways to show them that I’m on the case.

I care deeply about what they think and how they view my ideas. In return, they seem to bring about my creativity and drive, which makes me like them more.

There is an unspoken magic the truly powerful possess that can make you become your best self. How do they do it? It’s simply by believing that the people around them do in fact have the very talents that are required to deliver something special.

There’s no greater power than when someone believes you can do it. Now that’s real magic.

The story

I once had a terrific young guy working for me who wanted to be great, and the best way for me to arouse this greatness was to stop with the teaching and start with the doing.

There wasn’t anything I could say that would make him step up to greatness so it was time to throw an elbow.

On the morning of a breakfast meeting with a CEO I decided to ‘oversleep’ and let my guy take it on his own. It was a big meeting intended to get a big project across the line with a big fee attached; nothing short of greatness was going to be enough.

Between his desire to be great and the importance of this meeting, he was indeed great. ‘Fantastic,’ said the client, ‘a big idea that we absolutely love and he did a great job.’