The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander is one of my favorite books from the leadership core at Otterbein University. Benjamin Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also an inspirational storyteller, speaking and writing about possibility thinking, living and leading.
The clip below is just under two minutes, but provokes a meaningful activity to assess your ability to make other people powerful – known in our leadership model as the “enable others to act” practice. On The Leadership Challenge website, this practice includes this description, “Leaders…build spirited teams.”
I love that description…spirited teams. Dictionary.com defines spirited as “having or showing mettle, courage, vigor, liveliness, etc.” Imagine the possibilities if we all built spirited teams!
How can you judge the spirit of your team? One way is to look in their eyes.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrGAJ7hVh10?rel=0]
As you move from desk to desk and speak to your team members today, or perhaps the next time they gather around a table for a team meeting, look into their eyes.
What do you see?
As Zander suggested, if their eyes are not shining, ask yourself, “Who am I being that my team members eyes are not shining?”
Tuesday Tidbits are weekly messages I send to my leadership team. They are generally short & sweet, often focused on leadership or teamwork, always positive and, hopefully, motivational. I hope you also find some meaning in them.
