The Art of Encouragement
This post is guest authored by Grace Chadwick. Grace is the Chief Operations Officer for Crumbl Enterprises, the fastest growing food retailer for the past 5 years, with over 1,000 locations across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada. Grace has over 21 years of experience in the food industry, with companies like Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and now Crumbl.
By Grace Chadwick:
A little about me
I am Grace. I am a wife and a mom, a daughter and a sister, a leader and a learner. And, like you, I have many other roles that I strive to do with excellence. Do I always succeed at all of them? Definitely not. But every time I fail, I learn something.
I also have had the blessing of working for many amazing leaders that I have met during my journey from answering phones at American Express, to being a consultant with KPMG, to finally transitioning to an industry I love: the food industry. I have been in this industry for over 21 years, and I love everything about it. It is a very hard industry, but a very noble one. One where serving others becomes a joy and where many friends can be made. I started my food career at Burger King, then spent many years at Chick-fil-A, and now I serve desserts with a very fun and innovative brand, Crumbl.
Do you want to elevate your leadership this year?
Learn the art of encouraging others…
I have learned many leadership lessons during my career, and today I want to share one lesson that helped transform my own leadership: The Art of Encouraging Others.
If you want people to THRIVE, the best thing you can do is to be encouraging.
The founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathy always asked: You know when someone needs encouragement? If they are breathing. It was a great lesson for me to learn: the best leaders offer constant and authentic encouragement to those around them.
In order to offer authentic encouragement, it is critical to do the following:
Pay Close Attention: This doesn’t mean micromanage employees to catch their mistakes. We want to positively encourage by being fully present and paying attention to what they do well. So be observant, from the first person you meet when you wake up to the last one, everyone needs encouragement. If you offer encouragement to others consistently, this will translate to a deep desire to continue to do the very best at everything. I have even tried this with my children, and I promise, it is life-transforming.
Offer Clear and Authentic Words: For our encouragement to have credibility, it needs to be authentic and from the heart. Saying, “Good job!” or “Well done!” is not a great way to encourage someone. Your words matter, you need to be clear, specific, and authentic. This will allow the other person to feel the truth behind that encouragement and to know the exact behavior they should repeat so that they can shine.
Practice Intentionally: I know when I learned about encouragement, I was scared to try it. Somehow I felt it could be perceived as false, or maybe that I was trying too hard. Like most everything in life, if you do the first two steps and just practice consistently, it will be amazing for you to see the results of your encouragement. Not only will it quickly start to feel like second nature, but the people around you will feel your care. Everyone wants to be noticed in a positive way.
I want to share a personal story of how I apply this in my own life. As a parent, helping your children is one of the most challenging things, because if you correct them, they may resent you. So how do you steer them without creating resentment?
Positive encouragement.
One of my kids struggled early in school, but I knew (like I believe everyone does) that he has incredible potential. He was failing his work at school, because he was finishing his tests fast without double checking his work.
What did I do? I told him what incredible work and great results he had when he checked and double checked his work. I intentionally found examples of him working more diligently when submitting homework vs. doing tests. Instead of pointing out the failure of his tests, I pointed out the success in the homework assignments and how proud I was of him checking and double checking his homework before submitting it, and how that work of double checking was critical to the success he was seeing in his homework grades. As you can imagine, this directly translated to a sense of pride that he started applying to his tests. It allowed him to become successful at testing and obtaining the results he, like all of us, wanted: to succeed!!
I hope this simple story helps you understand the power of positive encouragement and that clear and detailed words of encouragement can help those around you reach higher and be happier.
When it comes to leadership, I have learned that encouragement is the key to unlocking potential, and it is available to all who truly want to become great leaders. I hope you master this skill, and maybe find me on LinkedIn and drop me a note to share the impact your leadership is having on those you interact with as you develop and grow in the art of encouraging others.
