Quote-A-Day: Day 220

The best way to build capacity? #Believe in what you say and do. #QuoteADay #Day220 #edchat #edu #KeepItReal

Guess what? 

People are very smart.

When you say something that you don’t mean, or take action around something you don’t believe in, people can tell (and, not surprisingly, they can tell easily).

If you’re trying to build capacity for an initiative, idea, and/or process, you have to make sure that you can truthfully represent what that process stands for, and why it is important.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you won’t have to work towards initiatives that you aren’t entirely in support of (it can’t always be about us).  However, even in those instances, we have to extol the merits of what those initiatives can do for the stakeholders we serve.

If an initiative has no worth for stakeholders, or, there is truly something inherently wrong with the process being taken, then we need to stand up for what is right, and request to not play a part.  If we do this strategically, along the lines with mentioning we aren’t the right person to speak to this issue or to try and drum up support for this, then our supervisors may see that either the idea is a bad one, or the role of shepherding this given initiative should be passed on to someone else (we don’t have to do everything that is thrown our way).

The key here is that if you’ve developed a collaborative and openly constructive leadership council, then those who have concerns with certain initiatives can speak freely, and those who want to push them through can supply evidence as to why they are worth exploring.

Regardless of whether you support an initiative or not, the only way to help people see its importance is to believe in its merits and speak about it from the heart.