Soar to Success September 2018

By Joan Washburn You can motivate anyone. You can encourage only someone you believe in. The research on motivation pretty much FRPHV GRZQ WR WKLV 3UDLVH ZRUNV EHWWHU WKDQ criticism. Encouragement, on the other hand, involves the acknowledgment of a negative thing – something that the person being encouraged doesn’t know they should or should not be doing. They might think they’re doing just ĆQH WKDW WKH\èUH HIIHFWLYH DQG DPELWLRXV Encouragement often involves bursting that bubble. To be encouraging you must believe two things to be true. One, the person is not trying hard enough, (which is probably not something they want to hear) and two, if the person did try, he or she could do great things. The key to encouragement is tact, and the key WR WDFW LV VSHFLĆFLW\ For example, you might say: “I think you have the potential to be a fantastic leader and have three people work under you… but in order to do that, we need to improve your time-management and organizational skills” vs. coming at them saying: “You are really disorganized.” Approaching it from the potential route is much more empowering. Notice that encouragement involves accountability – and not just for the one being encouraged. The encourager is accountable too because encouragement without guidance SOAR TO SUCCESS 6HSWHPEHU %XVLQHVV $FFHOHUDWLRQ 6WUDWHJLHV Professional Development through Encouragement