Don't Let Them Give Up

I signed up the guy a few weeks ago. Everything was going just great. He seemed to really be excited about the prospect of being a part of my team. All of the sudden nothing. I mean nothing. Not a call, not a returned call, nothing.So what did I do wrong? Was I not available enough. Didn't I give him enough value or information to keep him involved in the business? WHAT DID I DO WRONG?
Well the truth was, that I didn't do anything wrong. But I want to let you know what most leaders do at this point that can be devestating to their organization. Whenever each of us feels put off or someone in or organization leaves or doesn't seemed connected is that we allow that person to go. We just stop paying attention to them and turn or attention to the people in the organization who are doing great jobs. Most ladership boks tell you to this and to tell you the truth it is probably the best use or your time. It's called the 80/20 principle.
The 80/20 priniciple says that 20% of the people in any organization will do 80% of the work. Or they will do 80% of the production in your company. So naturally the inclination is to focus on those 20% who are going to do the bulk of the work.Makes sense doesn't it. Here's the thing that I want to remind you of though when it comes to business and relationships.
Business is all about relationships. What I mean is that if we just boil down our business to dollars and sense then we miss the relationship component that really makes business and pleasure and joy to conduct. I don't know about you but I don't want to be a business, no matter how much money I am able to make, and not know or care about the people in it. I want to genuinely like the people I am in relationship with. That's the difference between having a business that you choose to be in and a JOB that you have a forced relationship in. A forced relationship means that you are working with people you have no choice than but to be with.
Let's get back to my friend. I decided to continue to reach out to this person. Each week would pass and the likelihood of them coming back to the fold started to dim but something inside told me to continue to reach out to them. Literally a month passed and I really believed that I was spinning my wheels on this one. There is always a likelihood that one or even a group of the people in your organization will leave. It's happened to me before and I'm sure it will happen again. I am the kind of person who really takes it hard when a family member leaves. So I wasn't going to let this one go either.
2011 promises to be a year of new beginnngs and second chances. I really believe that. Not only will it be a new beginning but second chances for the mistakes I've made in 2010. Last year I didn't invest in people like I should have. I just wanted to get bodies involved in my business. Now I don't want you to ever believe that I don't care about people but I allowed my zeal to build a business to overshadow my committment to helping people get to the next level.
It had been weeks since last I spoke to my padwan learner. We had scheduled a meeting for that week. All of the sudden the phone rang and to my surprise it was that lost valueable coin. I was overjoyed. Have you ever been just happy that someone whom you had thought was gone out of your life was back? Well, I was there. I may have emotionally given up but in the physical I wasn't ready to. That physical diligence was all that was needed to bring about change.
I just want to let you know that whether or not this person becomes that superstar in our organization or not isn't the point. The point is that as a leader we are not to give up on our team. We may emotionally feel that we are beaten but never, ever give up on them. They may quit but as a leader don't you quit being there for them.