Atmosphere

Last night I spent five hours with a local branch of a national company. They had a husband and wife speaker team come in from Charleston, SC. They had people drive from over 2 ½ hours away to attend the meeting. And in all of the companies I’ve been with in my work career and now in the research of this book, none had the fire, energy, and passion that I felt last night. Standing ovations. People sharing and almost coming to tears. People afraid of public speaking overcoming their fears and getting up in front of 100 people. As I told my host when I left, “That is how business is supposed to be.”

There was an incredible feeling of teaching and growing others that radiated in all of the leader’s words and actions. The feeling of making a difference and making money. The feeling of growing your own and other peoples’ personalities. If every business could offer that same empowerment and connection to goals, our job satisfaction and economy would be booming.

The main speaker talked most of the night about how others helped him to get to where he was. And because of that, he would do whatever he could to pay that help forward. You can’t put a price on that type of motivation and leadership.

The big thing I took from last night was the incredible atmosphere that the group created. They did it by being interested in the development of others. It was an atmosphere of learning, sharing, and growing. It started at the top and funneled all the way down to someone who just walked in the door. As a leader said last night, if you let other peoples success be your success, great things will happen.