By Duane Brown
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April 6, 2021
Recently, I spent my lunch time with a senior leader in our organization. It was one of the best working lunches I’ve had in a long time. In fact, I can’t remember a time like this, when someone above me poured into me. For too many of us, times spent with senior leaders are filled with anxiety. Or, we're beaten down afterward and feel like in order to get clean from the experience, we need to take a long, hot shower. Please! For your sake, and the sake of your team, learn from what I am sharing and put some of these into practice the next opportunity you have to pour into your team. 1. He gave me his full time and attention. He didn’t check his phone (or Apple watch) the entire time we met. No blurting sounds either, to interrupt our lunch. In fact, I didn’t know he had a phone. He listened intently to what I had to say. He asked follow-up questions often. He looked me in the eyes often when he spoke to me, which said to me he had just the right amount of self-confidence. 2. He bought me lunch. That is kindness in action, since I invited him to lunch and was profuse in my attempts to buy him lunch. 3. He offered up a sum of money to invest in my leadership development. Very impressive. This said to me he not only believed in me as a leader but that he sees a future for me in the organization. When someone does that it causes you to think, “I want to be here for a while.” I came away thinking I have a opportunity to help write our story. 4. He asked about my family. I know there’s debate about how personal you should get with co-workers. But in this instance, man to man, I appreciated his interest how my wife and I were doing with our transition to this new job and how our kids were doing. 5. He challenged me. As he politely inquired about one area of life, I was stuck and he knew it. He politely suggested a reason for this and then challenged me by carefully suggesting a way to become unstuck. Very smart move on his part. Friends, this isn't rocket science here. Life is about making good memories. This was one of them for me. I hope you take steps now to intentionally pour into someone and make a forever positive memory for them.