Encouragement. It sounds like such a small thing. Subtle. Cute. It’s what we do with timid puppies.
But encouragement isn’t cute –it’s powerful. When you’re encouraging, you’re literally instilling courage. That’s huge. And that’s hard. Here are some quick tips on how to make a difference in a person’s life through encouragement.
You can motivate anyone. You can encourage only someone you believe in.
Here’s what I mean:
The research on motivation pretty much comes down to this: Praise works better than 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 fine, that they’re effective and ambitious. 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 to tact is specificity.
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.” Do you see where 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 and support isn’t encouragement. It’s discouragement.
Bottom line is you have to discourage before you encourage. That challenge is scary – for both parties. But the reward is sweet. Not only have you helped someone achieve a goal; you’ve helped them achieve a goal they didn’t previously have!
But what if no one is doing that for you? Stay tuned for some quick tips on that topic in the next video!
To learn more, or if you need some encouragement – email me at jw@washburnendeavours.com. Let’s talk!
And remember –
Whatever your goal or dream – WE Can Make it Happen!
