For this blog I will illustrate an analogy and then simply give 2 examples that reflect the analogy. It is simply “The Egg Analogy”.
It is simply that if you have an egg for basically any creature at all, there is a key fact to consider relative to leadership and developing your Rising Star. I offer the following 2 facts about an egg:
If the eggshell is broken from the Outside, Death occurs.
If the eggshell is broken from the Inside, Life is born.
How does this relate to Leadership and Developing Rising Stars or anyone else?
The Rising Star’s leadership and potential is grown and developed from within. If all you do is talk at them you are pressing the egg from without and they tend to either lose faith in you or they shut down. Not the desired result. If you help them get the sense and develop, grow and become. Let me offer 2 examples to illustrate.
Example 1:
A few years ago, the Sensei who tied on my 1st Degree blackbelt invited me to Mineral Wells as one of the evaluators for a Belt Test for his class. I was honored. During the Sparring, I saw one of the young boys who had his Green Belt and was testing, over talking to his dad and in his body language you could see he was quitting inside as he probably got punched a little harder than intended.
I walked over to the part of the bleachers, and I knelt down to be eye level with the young boy. I said “Hey buddy…..” and his dad said Listen to him. I said to him “I want you to know that what you are feeling right now is normal and you do not need to be embarrassed…BUT (and I placed a finger right where his heart was) you have more down here than you realize. Find out what it is going to take to reach down and get it.” I then said “Don’t ever forget, you have what it takes buddy…you have what it takes”.
Example 2:
A little granddaughter that was about 4-5 years old at the time, had gone through a tough time because of an abusive mother. I won’t say anything more about that but it was not something any youth should ever deal with. Her daddy was a great daddy and protected the kids. The marriage ended and thankfully the dad got full custody.
On one Sunday he called me on the phone and he said “There was a situation that I didn’t know how to handle”. He said he held his daughter in his lap for about 2 hours as she cried and asked why mommy doesn’t love me. I asked him what he did. His answer was perfect as he said “I didn’t do anything except held and hugged her.”
I simply told him that “You did perfect. You did not bad mouth anyone but most importantly, you helped her experience that she did not have to go through these times alone!” He allowed the egg to be broken from the inside.
What were the results? The little girl is doing awesome. She is getting A’s and B’s in school. Also, however, she has incredible leadership being developed from the inside and she is reading at a level about 3 years ahead of her grade in school.
When you are developing your Rising Stars, look at what you need to do to coach them to break the eggshell from the inside out and watch amazing results happen.
– Randy Swaim, Coaching for Relevance, LLC
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