I’ve never met an insignificant person.
But I have met:
- People who operate as if they’re insignificant
- People whose boss makes them feel insignificant
- People whose leadership regards them as insignificant
And I’m always saddened by such failure of potential.
Inherently people are negatively-biased – they are constantly deflating themselves. And this battle of insignificance rages daily. People are dying to learn that they matter and that their work makes a difference.
On the opposite side is “self-delusion bias” – people tend to perform better when they feel good about themselves.
So why would we ever allow people to feel less than significant?
Our best strategy for pulling the potential out of people is to spark their self-delusion and help them avoid their self-deflation. They don’t need to be reminded of how they’re already feeling: insignificant.
An attrition problem?
When a transportation company called to describe to me their attrition problem among their drivers, I said “You don’t have an attrition problem. You have a significance problem. Attrition is merely a symptom.”
The company revealed its 6-month pursuit of a solution to prevent drivers from leaving the company. Because this was costing them a lot of money, the executives were insanely focused on this problem.
And while they may have been looking, they weren’t looking around.
After analyzing the data and asking better questions, we discovered that the attrition rate was extremely low at one location compared to all others. And the differentiating factor? The supervisor! Drivers at the low-attrition location loved working with their supervisor. Drivers at other locations did not.
Ultimately, it was not about the drivers not driving anymore; it was about the leaders not leading anymore.
Once the executives shifted their focus to up-skilling their supervisors, everyone quickly discovered the power and passion behind: “I’ve never met an insignificant person.”
© 2020. Ann Tardy and Mentor Lead. www.mentorlead.com | www.anntardy.com
