Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: People Need to Be Valued
Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it’a a reminder that people have value.
My granddaughter loves to help. She wants to help me with the chores, she wants to help me with work around the house, she wants to help her mom with her activities, she wants to help make sure her older brother is taken care of. She may not feel the same way when she gets older, but right now she loves to help. So when I came home with a load of groceries, she wanted to help me carry everything in. She ran to put her shoes on and joined me at the truck so she could carry things into the house. After several trips, I only had a few heavy things left to carry in, so I started to walk out the door without her to get those things, but she stopped me at the door with a sad look on her face and said, “But you’ll be lost without me!“
Now, clearly I was not going to get lost walking from the house to the truck to get these last few things and carrying them back in. Nor did I need her help to do it. But I don’t think that’s what she was really saying. Whether she realized it or not, what she really wanted to know was whether or not her help mattered to me. She wanted to know that I believed in the importance of what she was doing as my helper. She wanted to know that she mattered to me. I could’ve just dismissed what she was saying, ignored her, and finished it myself, but that would have hurt and devalued her. I could’ve done it myself, but she needed to know that she was needed, and that she had value. There may come a day when she has to carry the groceries in for me, but she will be much less likely to want to do that if I don’t acknowledge her value now.
Similarly, when you work with people, they need to know that they have value. If they are early in their growth and experience, they may not do things as well as you, and it’s possible that you could do it without them. But if you want them to grow into the people who can do it well without you, they need to see their value now. More importantly than that, you need to know that their value is not in their level of accomplishment. Their value is in who they are as a person, and in their potential to grow. That’s what you are affirming when you acknowledge their value now.
What does that mean for you and your leadership role? It means that you need to recognize the worth of people because of who they are, not because of what they do. They want to know that they matter, and that they can bring meaning. If you devalue them, you can crush that spirit. You need, instead, to value who they are, even when there is a lot that they need to learn and a lot of ways in which they need to grow.
That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in my life, from my granddaughter exclaiming that I would be lost without her. The value of people is not in what they do, but in who they are. Therefore, even in their growth process and with their mistakes, recognize their value (and make sure they know you see it). People need to be valued.
I need to add one more crucial thought to this topic of discussion, and it’s this: we (including you and me) are all broken, imperfect people who have been marred by sin. That brokenness and sin makes us unworthy before God. But people matter to God. God values you and me so much that, in spite of our brokenness and sin, He gave His only perfect Son to be our Savior through His death, burial, and resurrection. It is only through that sacrifice that we can be saved, and, therefore, our true value is ultimately found in who we are in Jesus. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, I want to urge you to do so today.
