Читать книгу Shine - Ned Hallowell - Страница 8

WHAT MAKES A PERSON SHINE? What separates people who feel fulfilled from those who suffer with regret? Here’s a hint: it isn’t money in the bank, fame, trophies, or rank, as much as those may matter. Many people don’t finish first but nonetheless achieve greatness and long will be remembered, while many who do finish first will never be called great and will soon tumble into oblivion.

It doesn’t much matter what you’ve got in your personal asset bank. Smart is overrated. Talent is overrated. Breeding, Ivy League education, sophistication, wit, eloquence, and good looks—they matter, but they’re all overrated. What really matters is what you do with what you’ve got. If you hold nothing back, if you take chances and give your all, if you serve the world well, then you will exult in what you’ve done and you will shine—in the eyes of the world, in the eyes of those who matter to you, and in your own eyes as well.

The more a manager can help the people who work for him or her to shine, the greater that manager will be, and the greater the organization as a whole. Put simply, the best managers bring out the best from their people. This is true of football coaches, orchestra conductors, big-company executives, and small-business owners. They are like alchemists who turn lead into gold. Put more accurately, they find and mine the gold that resides within everyone.

Managing in a way that brings out people’s best is a critical task, perhaps second in importance only to parenting in shaping the future of our world. More than any other quality, it takes heart to be such a manager. Rather than define heart, let me tell you about a man who has it.

When I was traveling to interview people as part of my research for this book, I got to Boston’s Logan Airport early one day and decided to use the extra time to get my shoes shined. As I walked up to the stand, I noticed an old man seated next to it, a walker by his side. He was sitting with his head in his arms, which he had peacefully folded over the bars of the walker. Assuming he was just an elderly passenger taking a rest before his plane took off, I asked him if he knew where the shoe-shine guy might have gone.

“I’m the shoe-shine guy!” he proclaimed, straightening up immediately and showing the kind of smile that draws an instant smile out of you, too. “Set your bags next to my walker here and step on up into my office.” Propelled by this elderly gentleman’s sudden burst of energy, I hustled up onto the stand and settled into an old chair. Its sagging seat of cracked black leather had seen better days, but its proprietor was still going strong. As I put my feet onto the smooth brass footplates, I had no idea how extraordinary he was or how much he was about to influence me and this book.

He slid his chair over and announced in a slight southern accent, “Good mornin’, sir, I’m Dr. Shine.” He proceeded to inspect my shoes with the careful eye of a physician sizing up a new patient. He then began to spray water on my loafers, taking care not to wet my socks or trousers. “You in the corporate world?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “but I work with a lot of people who are. I’m a psychiatrist and a writer. My specialty is helping people get the most out of their abilities.”

“Interesting. Would you believe it, that’s my specialty, too! I get up every morning, and I look forward to helping people get into the right frame of mind so they can shine, no matter where they go or what they do. When I do that, I’m happy.”

“You sound like the better managers I consult with in business,” I said.

“Do I?” he replied, then added with a chuckle, “Well, I’m sure I don’t make their kind of money. But I do love what I do. For me, it’s all about the shine I put on the person. You see, I reach out. Too many people don’t reach out any more. They hold back. They’re too worried ’bout something bad might happen, or they’re in too much of a hurry. Or they think they have too many answers already and they’re not curious anymore, so they miss their big chance. Every time you’re with a person, you’ve got a big chance. I say, don’t miss it. Don’t worry about putting out the fire before you strike the match. I always strike the match. I want to find that spark in a person, you get what I mean?”

“I sure do. But how do you do it?” I asked, knowing that this was the crux of my book. Maybe Dr. Shine could sum it up for me. And he did.

“Just keep fishin’. I only get a few minutes, you know, so I gotta get right to it. Everybody’s got that spark in them, somewhere.”

Dr. Shine, you are so right, I said to myself. Everybody’s got it in them somewhere. But far from everybody finds their spark and makes the most of what they’ve got. How come? That’s what this book is about: helping managers help people find their spark and make the most out of what they’ve got.

“What about the grumpy people you meet?” I asked. “What about the people who don’t even see you as a person? Working here, you must get a lot of those.”

“Oh, sure, but I understand them. You gotta remember, everybody has their bad days. I never know what somebody who sits up there is up against, what problems they got, what’s working on them. So I treat them good, no matter how they treat me. If you don’t like people, you better not be shining shoes. I have multiple sclerosis, and my doctor says I better get ready to slow down, but I tell him my work is my best therapy. I love what I do, and my customers need me.”

“You have MS? How do you keep doing this?” I asked.

“I talk to you!” Dr. Shine replied. “When someone is sitting up in that chair, all I think about is what he needs and that gives me my energy. If I can’t forget about me and think about you, then I have no business shining shoes.”

“You’re pretty amazing. Where does your drive come from?” I asked.

“From people. I love to find that spark. That’s it.” A little time passed in silence while I watched Dr. Shine tend to my shoes with the sort of devotion you always see in people who care about what they do. “And you know what? People want what I do. They come from different terminals all over this place just to get a shine from me! I’m known all over Logan Airport.”

“Do you work for yourself?” I asked.

“I work for you!” he immediately replied.

Like Dr. Shine, great managers serve others; they develop the shine in their people. I marveled at Dr. Shine. Here was a man with MS, working at Logan Airport, who embodied what I’ve discovered are the most critical elements that lead to achievement at the highest levels, no matter what the endeavor. In fact, without knowing it, Dr. Shine implemented a five-step process for managing high performance that I have come to call the Cycle of Excellence. It is a process managers everywhere can use.