Are there certain phrases or concepts that you heard over the years from an important person in your life that you still repeat or play over in your head?
I am sitting with a client who is very concerned about spending more time outside of his office selling. He feels like he needs to be at the office all of the time to answer questions and make all of the decisions.
Although he owns the business, it still felt applicable to share the concept a long-term mentor of mine shared with me when I worked for him in my corporate career. He would always say “Sue, the measurement of your leadership is how well your department runs without you, not with you here.” He was always preparing me for the next promotion and he knew that if I wanted to move on, my department had to do well without me. It motivated me to work even harder on developing my people.
That was my message to this business owner. “You need to develop your people to perform even when you are out of the office.”
I realized these words, and many more from this mentor, have been shared by me over and over again with clients. In fact, his words shaped many of my business philosophies and habits.
There are also many words from others that I disagreed with that pushed me to do the opposite of their advice. And even though the speaker was not trying to use reverse psychology, their words still shaped me in many ways.
Who are your mentors? If you think back across the decades of your life, faces flash through your mind of those important to you. Good or bad, these influential people left their mark.
How you respond to these influences will shape your career and many times your character.
Whether you consider a person a mentor or not, their words are the words you live by. They are the words you replay in your head or pass down to others over the years.
They shape your mind, influence your habits and chart your course.
Who are the people and what are the words that have charted the course of your life? Do you like the direction that your life and business are moving?
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