The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Good Morning,

One of my friends shared with me an event that happened at their place of work, where a boss gave a Rah-Rah speech, but the effect and impact of that speech had very different results than the boss probably ever intended.

Rah-Rah speeches are those speeches or talks which people use to help get others fired up. They reach key points in the hearts and minds of their audience with the goal of inspiring them to step up, roll up their sleeves and do what needs to be done.

A successful Rah-Rah speech can turn a losing battle into the biggest win in an organization's history. It can turn the feelings of hopelessness and defeat into those of promise and anticipation of achievement and success.

To make a successful Rah-Rah speech, we need to know our audience. We need to know what makes them tick. That is, what is important to them, and at the same time know what they have been doing and what they have been facing in their day-to-day efforts.

For us to successfully help motivate others, we need to speak to them in a way that THEY understand that we are speaking to them. Even more so, we must speak in a way to show that we not only know what they are going through, or have faced, but that we also care about them as people and appreciate all they have done and who they are.

A person giving a Rah-Rah speech who does not know the people they are speaking to might as well speak to a wall or a statue. People are usually a lot more intuitive and intelligent than others give them credit for. People tend to know when someone tries to snow them, or worse yet, patronize them.

My friend is a hard worker who, with their co-workers have pushed themselves for many years to do their jobs well where they work. They tend to pick up the slack for others and often come home exhausted. They also know that they are doing what must be done with the relative obliviousness of the leadership and those who take advantage of the situation by avoiding work.

When their boss started talking about tightening up operations and getting folks to pick-up the slack, she pulled my friend and their co-workers into a meeting and gave them a Rah-Rah speech. The boss told them they would need to step it up and gave a list of goals that they would need to work hard to meet.

Sadly, what the boss did not know was that these people normally exceeded these goals on a daily basis. The boss ended up insulting and hurting those they wanted to inspire and motivate. My friend and their co-workers then shared what was actually going on with the boss, who seemed relatively clueless about their own department. It's hard for a boss to show they care, when they don't know what is going on.

It is a stressful work environment, made worse by a well meaning, but uninformed leader who needs to get a better understanding of what is happening on the front lines of their own operation.

This Wrong-Way Rah-Rah imploded on the team, rather than empowered them.

Something to think about.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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