The Best of You
How do you reveal the deeper you?
Where do you give the best of you?
Enjoyed the NINES experience last month sponsored by Leadership Network. There were many beneficial leadership nuggets to glean from the experience. As I always lean into thoughts on personal development, team development, and leadership, I want to share a simple but significant take-away regarding relationships.
In whatever you do, personally and professionally, you want to give your best, right? But have you really thought about giving your best to the people around you who are by your side in those important times – and who really are the reason that the best of you and the cause happen?
Matt Carter, pastor at Austin Stone, at the NINES, when speaking on a personal level about the importance of his relationship with his wife said, “It doesn’t matter if I win the heart of the city if I lose my wife.” That was intense and profound. But we can extrapolate. What about your team? How do you treat them? Do you value your team enough to consider what it would be like if you lost them?
How you treat the people closest to you reveals the deeper you. That is what people hear and respond to.
So what choice are you going to make? How are you going to speak to the most important people in your life? In ways that build them up, encourage relationship and team, and propel your mission? How will you invest in those relationships – and those people? In what ways are you willing to invest in them to keep them engaged, inspired, and feeling valued.
Sure, we want to give the best of us to everything we do. But be sure you are not giving the best of you to the big idea to the neglect of the people in your life that support you and encourage you, and your cause, daily.
Just simple adjustments to your focus, communication style and attention to those around you will have a huge affect on your mission. And I suspect, when you give attention to those around you, just by giving of yourself, will also have a real affect on you, too.