Believe It More Than They Do

Grows, Hiring, Leading, We

To lead, coach, teach, parent, influence, or sell, you can study lots of techniques. And I recommend you do.

To do these very well, cultivate your belief in others. Develop such a strong belief in each person’s abilities, potential, and future successes–even before you see any evidence–that they begin to believe it, too.

 

To your continued success,

Mike

P.S. If you have trouble imagining that this could work, consider this: What would happen if you believed the opposite? Also, you don’t have to believe something ridiculous. Just believe something that is even a little bit better than what they are now.

6 thoughts on “Believe It More Than They Do”

  1. Incredibly wise, Mike! There is no bigger downer than someone who believes that people always have evil ulterior motives and can’t be trusted. But what can be done about this if there is someone with this attitude in your group? How to bring them around to see the light?

    1. Hi Jay,

      Whoo-yes. I hear you. One way to bring others about is to use this approach on them. Believe more than they do that they are even just a bit more capable, caring, connected, and contributing and that they can see that same spark in others, too.

      I’m not being cheeky here by suggesting you use this approach even with those who seem to be the biggest downers. This approach can be seem like the slowest way to have a change occur in a person, community, or entire society. But the other options too often raise the defenses of the people you’d wish a change for. Witness current politics, tensions inside organizations, and conflicts in families. In the long run, this method is likely the fastest route.

      What do you think?

      Mike

  2. Thanks, Mike, that makes sense … but like bad habits, negative attitudes like we’re talking about here have very deep roots in some people! Not so easy to pull out (or perhaps I should, “coax” out!). And yes, you definitely are on the right track, no and, if or buts! Any thoughts of bringing all this stuff together in a book?

  3. I found this incredibly inspiring and powerful today!
    Will connect it to a workshop I deliver on the topic of “shifting one’s perceptions”.
    Thank you Mike.

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