Inside Out

From the desk of Teresa Jordan, Executive Director – This week, I had the wonderful pleasure of hearing Sarah McVanel speak about greatness. And I had the heads up of what she was going to talk about – recognizing the greatness in others – and I was so excited.

The surprise was that she began her talk with an exercise that had audience members delving into our own greatness. Now, this exercise was not an appraisal and did not have to be signed off by a critical number of people to verify – it was just us, describing on a small card, what we know to be true about our own greatness.

It was a pivotal idea, that we need to appreciate our own greatness, know what we are good at, value our own tool box before we can even begin to recognize greatness in others. Further, Sarah clarified that if we start the habit of noticing the greatness in ourselves and in others we will see what we are looking for, we will notice more and we will have our own lists reinforced by others noticing.

Another key learning for me – complaints are simply poorly worded requests. Try to pull out the feedback in that complaint that might be important to moving forward; stand in your greatness in the listening. Everyone has something that they alone offer to the world, looking for the greatness moves us all to greater things.

Thank you, Sarah, for great thoughts, energy and the challenge to thank and acknowledge one another.

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