GUEST: Dan Ralphs
www.thedreamblog.com
Twitter: @dreamtolead
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-ralphs/
HIGHLIGHTS FROM OUR CONVERSATION:
You can’t teach another person anything they don’t want to learn. They have to choose to learn it. If you can’t motivate people to choose to learn and grow, you won’t be very successful as a teacher? or as a leader.
There’s a magic lever you can use to awaken that intrinsic motivation. It’s the question, “What’s the future for you? I’m an advocate for you.” Give them ownership of their future.
We’re afraid of letting our people define success for themselves. We can trust our employees a lot more than we do to define an ambitious success outcome.
People can and will be able to create a balance and synthesis of self-interest and company-interest. They can comprehend the interdependence.
As a leader, ask yourself? Do I diminish or increase those who report to me? Do you think of them as being as capable, well-intentioned, and hard-working as you are? If not, how does your communication to and about them reflect those beliefs?
Every company should have a dream manager. That may sound like a silly idea. It’s mutually transformative.
OUr brains are designed to help us survive. We’re programed to seek sameness and to resist change. So we get into routines, and then into stasis. We resist change and growth.
Dreams are those things that we want and that lie outside our comfort zone and that can be expressed in language.
Try this: Make a list of 100 Dreams. Then choose one you could accomplish in 12-18 months. And commit to that dream. Make it happen. Get someone to hold you accountable. Watch yourself expand and grow to make that accomplishment a reality.
Dreaming and executing on those dreams grow a capacity to perform that an employer benefits from.
Intense side-hustling employees are higher performers than those with no side hustle.
At Infusionsoft, the word “Dreamer” is akin to “Entrepreneur.” It’s someone with vision who brings vision into the world as reality.
Managers hold people accountable to their dreams and to the steps it takes to achieve them. We invite managers and team members to dream together. That amplified the results.
To create change, we need a community of people to believe in us even when maybe we don’t believe in ourselves.
There are two parts of dream making: Imagining. And, Executing. These are fundamental business skills. Most people are much stronger in one than in the other. And the capacity in the other can be learned and grown.
There’s great power in imagining possibilities — and in aligning resources to support a desired possibility.
If this improbable thing were possible, then what would it take for us to get there?
Theoretically, it’s possible historically has turned into in actuality, it exists.
Having a Dream Manager is a recruiting draw. The greatest benefit to Infusionsoft, though, is the growth of our employees.
We want to see leaders recognize that part of their opportunity is to help those that they lead to aspire to bigger things, believe they’re capable of bigger things, and to put plans and actions into place to accomplish bigger things.
We can magnify those whom we lead.
Believe in people. When we believe in people, they are magnified and they accomplish more than they coul dhave without your belief buoying them up.
Your host on Mighty Good Work is Aaron Schmookler.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/schmookler/
And, we’re The Yes Works — Helping to make work good for people, and make people good for work.
Resources mentioned in today’s show:
Liz Wiseman’s book, Multipliers
Matthew Kelly’s book, The Dream Manager
www.thedreamblog.com and Dream School