Over the past five weeks our team has been participating in The Generous Leadership Challenge put on by my friend and founder of a non profit called The Big Idea Project, Tricia Halsey.  The Big Idea Project teaches the concept of generous leadership to high school students within their daily curriculum at school.  It is an organization that I absolutely love because of the work they do and the impact they have on students in preparing them to be better leaders once they leave high school.  The students learn about the importance of serving others, how to overcome challenges, and how to work together as a team to solve problems within their communities.

Through the Generous Leadership Challenge, our team set goals in three areas:

1 - Self Goals - see your self as valuable and worthy (not worthless)

2 - Others Goals - See other people as people (not objects) 

3 - Work Goals - see the work you do as sacred (not ordinary)

Each week we posted our goals and relevant updates for each other to see and even gave ourselves ratings for how well we had done over the past five weeks.  During our all-team discussion last week, we shared our insights and what we learned about ourselves through this process.  One of the top takeaways was the importance of accountability and how much it helped to have others supporting your journey.  Those who had created a “partner” to do their goals with found they followed through because they knew someone else was counting on them.  Those that asked advice of team members found that they had more motivation to achieve their goals because they felt supported.  And some of our team members said that just writing it down for everyone to see made them more committed to their goals.

Too many times as leaders we feel like we have to have all the answers, that we have to put on a strong persona and can’t show weakness.  This causes us to avoid asking for help for fear of the perception that we are not capable of doing our jobs.  In reality it just might be the best way for us to achieve our own goals.  Les Brown said; “Ask for help. Not because you are weak. But because you want to remain strong.”  As we discovered through our experience we learned how important it was to not only support one another, but also to be willing to ask for help when you need it.  As groups we are far better equipped to accomplish more than any individual, but only when we have leaders that recognize that fact.

*Each week I share a leadership message with our team and we are honored to share it with you via MIBE Tribe.  MIBE (the acronym for Make It Better Everyday) Tribe delivers education on heart leadership and intentional culture building for the hospitality industry.