Believing in People until they’re forced to believe in themselves
I have a coach. He’s probably unaware of this but while he was determining whether or not to take me on there’s certain criteria that I used to determine whether he’s the right person to work with me. Critically, i needed to know that he really and truly believed in me and what I stand for with the confidence that I have the ability to achieve my goals. Secondly I needed to know that he would hold me to account.
You see whether it’s articulated or not no one is truly successful without the help and support of at least one other person who believes in them and spurs them on. – even against the odds.
I saw this in action a number of years ago when I watched a reality television programme whereby politicians lived the career lives of everyday people for a week. Clare Short was one of the politicians and she worked as a primary school teacher for a week. For the first day or so, she shadowed the class teacher, then she took over the class, observed by the class teacher. I clearly remember there was a young boy in the class who habitually got into trouble for coming late to class. On the second day or so he came late but not as late as usually. To the consternation of the class teacher, Clare praised him for getting in earlier than usually. (The teacher didn’t like this because from her perspective, late was later) However, her perspective began to change when she notice that under the praise and Encouragement of Clare the young boy was making a concerted effort to get to school in time and hard started coming earlier and earlier (regardless of, if I remember correctly his lack of support from home). Not only did the young boy’s time keeping improve, but with the encouragement of teacher Clare his whole attitude towards school began to improve and he even became a bit of a teacher’s pet.
The message was reiterated earlier this year when I watched an NBC ‘Making a Difference’ report about the singer, Usher’s community mentoring programme. A young man interviewed stated that his whole life had been changed by the fact that Usher had believed him to the point that he was forced to believe in himself.
I believe as individuals we can achieve way more than we imagine if we have the support of people that see the potential in us and are ready to take the time to spur as on. The reality is that everyone has someting special to offer.
Copyright 2011. This document is the specific intellectual property of Susan Popoola. Content may not be reused or reproduced without the specific permission of the owner or a reference to the source. Opinions may be generated