By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to build self esteem that sustains your team. Reading time: 2:41.

Forget rewards. Try “prewards” to motivate your troops.

What’s a “preward?” Same as a reward except it’s presented BEFORE an expected behavior or performance.

Consider General Douglas MacArthur in World War II. The day before a planned battle, he took off his own Distinguished Service Cross and pinned it on his battalion commander. “I’m confident you will earn that Distinguished Service Cross when you lead your men into battle tomorrow,” MacArthur predicted.

Not if. When. He did. And they were victorious.

A “preward” ups the ante in personal expectation to an act of faith in others that can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

A “preward” can be something like the title or label you give to a group or an individual.

A “preward” could be the teacher who calls her students “scholars” or the football coach who calls his players “student athletes.”

Do You Have Too Many Cold Statues Working For You?

A “preward” can change the dynamics of a relationship like the patient who caught the hospital technician off guard with a “preward” while he was routinely drawing a blood sample from the patient. “How long have you been a Care Giver,” the patient asked? The technician was surprised. No one had ever called him a Care Giver before.

Nurses and doctors and social workers might use the term —Care Giver —to define themselves but not a medical technician, he thought. But then the technician began to come to life. He broke out of the cold stone of his job function. He breathed a new sense of purpose. And he smiled at his newly perceived value he was bringing to others beyond a simple diagnostic test.

Parlay Your Pygmalion Power

Do you have too many cold statues working for you? Then bring them back to life. With your act of faith in them. And use a “preward” to parlay your Pygmalion Power.

According to Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a king who longed for companionship and love. He was also a sculptor who created a statue of a beautiful woman. He believed thoroughly in the statue. He loved it unconditionally. His conviction for the statue impressed Aphrodite so much that the Greek goddess of love brought the statue to life. Pygmalion had parlayed his power and demonstrated his leadership with his act of faith. And a “preward.”

Today’s ImproveMINT

Foster faith in others to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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