Are You Tapping Your Full Potential?

Generational Gems for Future Leaders I’m currently in the process of facilitating several leadership programs with some terrific clients. Each is a long-term series in which we cover a wide variety of leadership tips, tools and strategies.

We tackle one exercise which is a lot of fun but, at the same time, illustrates the power and importance of tapping our full potential as individuals by simply utilizing the many resources we possess but often overlook or take for granted.

In asking just ten basic, very simple questions, I quickly illustrate that seldom can any one individual in attendance answer all ten queries correctly. In fact, rarely does anyone even come close. However, at the same time, we quickly discover that collectively, by combining the education and experience of everyone in the room, we quickly answer all ten questions correctly in less than 30 seconds!

The point of course is quite obvious. This same truth holds true in the workplace as well. We all bring something different to the table in the areas of education, experience, creativity, enthusiasm, and attitude. By tapping the collective resources of the entire team, there are few, if any, challenges which can’t quickly be transformed into opportunities.

It is only the wisest and most successful organizations that practice this obvious strategy on a regular basis. This simple philosophy leads us to the following Generational Gem. To better understand the true moral of this story, one must be aware of the definition of resource: "a source of supply, support, or aid, especially one that can be readily drawn upon when needed."

A very young boy wanted to play catch with his daddy. However, there was a stone in the middle of the baseball diamond that needed to be moved before they could play. The enthusiastic youngster told his dad, "I’ll move it and then we can play." He struggled very hard but simply couldn’t budge the stone.

Father and son playing baseball His dad asked, "Are you sure you’re using all your strength?"

"Yeah Dad, I am."

He tried again but the stone simply wouldn’t move. His dad then walked over to the youngster and helped his son move the stone. As he did so, he said to his little-leaguer, "Son, until you ask me to help you, you aren’t using ALL your strength!!!"

What a great lesson for all of us. We each have many resources at our disposal at all times that we may very well be overlooking. We need to use ALL our strength, all our resources at all times!

PAUSE, IDENTIFY, UTILIZE, SUCCEED, APPRECIATE, CELEBRATE!

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of motivational speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services.