Looking For Mighty Eagles Amongst Chickens

 Once upon a time, on a large mountainside there was an eagle nest with several large eagle eggs inside.

  One day, an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down to a chicken farm, located in the valley below.

The chickens knew that they must protect the eagle egg. Eventually, the eagle egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born.

Being chickens, the chickens raised the eagle to be a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family but it seemed his spirit cried out for more.

One day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring. "Oh," the eagle cried, "I wish I could soar like those birds."

The chickens roared with laughter, "You cannot soar like a mighty eagle. You are only a chicken and chickens do not soar." The eagle continued staring at the mighty eagles up above, dreaming that he could be like them.

Each time the eagle talked about his dreams, he was told it could not be done, and he should be happy he was a chicken.

That was what the eagle learned to believe. After time, the eagle stopped dreaming and continued to live his life as a chicken.

One day a mighty eagle was flying overhead and thinking eagle was a chicken he swooped down, grabbed eagle, and carried him back to his nest to eat. When the mighty eagle saw that eagle was not a chicken he asked eagle, why are you living with chickens? Eagle said, because I am a chicken that is all I know and that's what everyone says I am.

The mighty eagle said no you're not, I tell you, you are a mighty eagle like me and you can soar like me and rule the air, I will show you. With that mighty eagle grabbed eagle and carried him high up in the air, high as he could fly. Eagle was terrified because he knew he would fall to a horrible death.

Suddenly mighty eagle let go of eagle and eagle fell, spinning and screaming I am a chicken, I am only a chicken and chickens don't fly, I am going to die. Mighty eagle swooped down again and carried him up again, but this time mighty eagle said, just try, open your wings, when they fill with air you will know you are a mighty eagle like me.  Mighty eagle let go again, fear began to rush in again but eagle, remembering what mighty eagle said opened his wings. When the rushing air filled his massive wingspan for the first time, he felt the explosive power he was born to harness and at that moment he knew he was also a MIGHTY EAGLE, looking at his new friend and fellow mighty eagle he was thankful that another mighty eagle saw him for what he really was and could be…

The Beginning

I hope you enjoyed this twist to an old story. Are you looking for mighty eagles amongst chickens?

Empowerment of Trust

Empowerment, I really like this word, it is both self-descriptive and mysterious. The thing is, empowerment is trust of which is nearly impossible to give yourself, but you can give it to others. 

Allow me to illustrate; say that you have a safety specialist who is not up to par and is not respected by you or others at their work. Everyone says he/she is not any good and you are even considering letting him or her go…Wait, before you pull the trigger and end his/her career with your company, ask yourself, "Have they been empowered". Many are authorized but the successful ones are empowered. You ask "What's the difference?", to be empowered, someone else needs to trust you and lift you  up:

1.    Begin with full trust and confidence in their motivation, competence and qualifications.

2.    Visibly support and be loyal to their efforts.

3.    Unambiguously layout your expectations with a "real" offer of support accompanied with training materials and funds.

4.    Working from a position of trust you will see many more attributes of the person that are encouraging and with the continuous reinforcement of the positive, you will see  results manifest as wins, capitalize on the wins while shoring up the low points with constructive tutoring.

 

You ask, "What if they fail, wasn't my trust misplaced?"  I say that it was not, because you still balance out in the end with knowledge of what you need and if required you can better select the next person. In addition, you can look in the mirror and say to the face looking back at you, that you did all you could to empower them to be a success they just didn't harness it.  In a win scenario, you will see the average person raise their own standards and meet the expectations or at least progress towards it. Remember when you start with trust, you will have more people you trust in the end