Give Before You Ask
Give before you ask.
Giving is not usually a characteristic we associate with great leaders. But giving is where leadership begins.
When you ask me to join your movement, join your company or team, support your new project or initiative, charge up the hill, or simply buy your product, my response is “Why? What’s in it for me?” There is nothing selfish or odd when I ask the question. We ask that question, perhaps to ourselves, every time someone asks us to do something.
Before you ask your team to follow you, give them a reason to follow you. Before you ask the promising new hire to come on board, give them a reason to join your team. Before you ask your community or your country to follow you in a new direction, give them a reason to join your cause. Before you ask a potential customer to buy your product or service, give them a reason to buy – the benefits to them if they buy.
Giving before asking sounds simple, even obvious. But we usually do not think that way, and we don’t act that way. Our usual focus, as individuals and as leaders, is on what we want and what is important to us. You may be passionate about the cause, the new project, or the new way to win in the competitive marketplace and firmly believe this is the right way to go. Unless you can do everything needed for success yourself, you need your team, your customers, your investors, and your fellow citizens to change what they are doing and follow your lead.
Before asking for what you want and what you need, give something valuable. Create a vision of success. Help your team understand why the success you imagine will be valuable and important to them and what their role will be on the path to success.
I want and expect the leader of my team, my company, and my cause to give me a vision of where we are going, how I can contribute to achieving success, and why success is important to me. As a consumer, I give you my money because the value to me of the automobile or hair shampoo I am buying is higher than the value of the cash I am giving you. If you want me to give you my cash, convince me of your product’s value to me.
Before asking for something important, give something important. Give a vision of success and value relevant and important to your staff, your team, your community, or your customer.
Christmas Lights Through the Window
The amazing Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City symbolizes the Holiday Season. Halifax, Nova Scotia, sends a wonderful Christmas Tree to Boston each year. At a time of wonder and spectacle, I find special joy in the simple lights shining through the window on a snowy day in Rockport, Massachusetts. If you turn and look to the right from this window, you will see the red fishing shack that is the model for Motif No. 1. Artists have painted more images of this simple building than any other in the world. Google Motif No. 1.
