The Power of Encouragement

 “A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.”

                                                                                                                                -Unknown

The epic story told in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is filled with examples of encouragement. Consider this conversation between Frodo and Gandalf in an early scene from The Fellowship of the Ring:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.  All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

When we think about encouraging or motivating others we often think about what to say – words ARE important, but encouragement is more than just words.  In the scene above, Gandalf’s response is designed to give Frodo vision beyond himself and a sense of great purpose.  With this insight Frodo is able to commit himself completely to a monumental journey.  (Anyone familiar with this story knows this is not the only time Gandalf will need to encourage Frodo along the way to ultimate victory).

Remaining competitive and successful in today’s marketplace is an ongoing struggle – whatever you’re grappling with, it helps to hear words of encouragement that remind us that we all take our share of knocks, but the best things in life come through persistence.

Individual and/or team success requires a certain level of motivation and an appropriate type of encouragement.  The more people receive the kind of support they need along the way, the easier it is for them to stay focused on the task or journey and see it through to completion.

imapMyTeam® is your key understanding just the right way to encourage others when they need it most.  Refer to the attached grid to see the best way to encourage your employees or teammates. Identify what quadrant their circle symbol falls in and then frame your encouragement  accordingly.

In addition to successful outcomes, relationships are strengthened and unshakable trust established.

The supportive characters in Mr. Frodo’s journey offered boundless encouragement and as a band of unlikely heroes, they were not only victorious, but enriched by their relationships. 

Minimize Message Misfires

Tick, Tick, Tick… the minutes pass like hours and your attention has expired too.
Tick, Tick, Tick… some people seem to be getting this more than I am, why?
Tick, Tick, Tick… note to self – get someone else to present next time.

We have all been there. Someone presents to us, or we present to them and it goes over flat. You wonder why.

Or,

10 minutes into the report or presentation you think – wow they missed the mark. You are frustrated. It’s not that you can’t follow the content; it is the way it is put together that makes it difficult to get to what you need. You think you would have done it differently.

Have you been there? Sure have; we all have and here is why.

The simple truth is what attracts and interests us as people is varied. We each have a unique filter of what we let in or block out. That filter will:

1) influence the way we are inclined to transmit messages and
2 ) dictate the way we prefer to receive others messages to us.

When your communication filters are in sync with those you are communicating with, the message clicks naturally. While that natural connection is great; more often than not we have differences that cloud the communication creating a potential message misfire.

For example if you really love data and prepare a detailed number-centric communication to someone who is not interested in data two things will have happened. One is that your message will not be as well received as you want and you wasted your time putting all of that detail together for that person.
Another example is written communication. If you love to write you may be tempted to write quite a bit -use too many words (in their opinion) and you will have created a document that other person will unlikely read in its entirety. A high level summary would have sufficed. Once again, the message is muddled and you spent time on something you did not need to.

We have added a new report to imapMyTeam® called Your Communication Blind Spots that will give you insight to the areas you may overuse, or underuse because it is something YOU like or don’t like, rather than what the other person prefers. Ideally, you are creating the presentation or communication to what appeals to them, not you.

Use the insights from Your Communication Blind Spots when you are getting ready to select a method to communicate with others for a more on-target and readily accepted message.


Save time, prevent message misfires, get others onboard quickly. You have to like that message! 

Is Your Bench Strong Enough to Win?

So far the summer of 2015 has been very exciting for fans of team sports. Two recent events point to the need to develop and utilize your bench in the quest for success, be it in sports or business.
First we watched as the NBA season came to a close with their league finals featuring the Cleveland Cavaliers vs. the Golden State Warriors. Second, and most recently, the world watched as the US Women’s National Team won the FIFA Women’s World Cup of Soccer.

Both of these teams counted on star players to be at their best when it counted most. Golden State was counting on the continued stellar play of Steph Curry and his Splash Brother team-mate Klay Thompson to bring a second title in 40 years to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Women’s National Team relied on stars Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach and finally Hope Solo in goal, to bring home a 3^rd Women’s World Cup Championship after keeping fans waiting since 1999.

Like these teams, every company has its superstars. We expect them to perform well and, more often than not, they deliver. But they cannot do everything themselves. Companies, like sports teams need a strong bench of people if they want to be consistently successful.

The key to these two teams achieving their ultimate goals was having and utilizing deep benches and rotations combined with the selflessness of the stars.

In cases like the triumphant Golden State Warriors and Women’s National Team, there is always an abundance of talent on the team. However, teams with the most talent don’t always win. These teams possessed talent, but also strong player-to-player and player-to-coach relationships built on trust and a relentless desire to perform well and win. Golden State Head Coach Steve Kerr cited those specific attributes and also believes they may have had more fun all year long than any other team in the league.


Make sure you are supporting and building your bench as well as your stars. When you do, it will help you all have some fun and bring home the ‘championship’ to your organization in whatever endeavor you are competing. imapMyTeam® is designed to enable you on a daily basis to build strong relationships in order to excel and turn in a championship performance.