Leading People In Need - Tips For Keeping Hope Alive

By Richard Hamon

People who are happiest are those who serve others. They are loving and giving individuals who reach out to help those in need. And they do it because they care. But . . . what should a helper or leader do when the picture looks bleak for someone he is trying to help?

It pays to keep hope alive.

Hope is a powerful tonic. And a powerful tool for helping others. When we remember to use hope strategically, we can keep everyone happier. In fact, giving hope is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give.

When people lose hope their emotional health plummets and their thinking habits become more negative. Some people may engage in destructive behavior or even become suicidal when they feel a strong sense of hopelessness.

Tips For Creating Hope

1. Always encourage hope without turning it into a lecture and without being condescending in any way!

2. When trying to help people who are in need, it always pays to do your best, without trying to do it for them.

3. Offer or provide help, but be willing to step back and give the person a chance to take advantage of it.

You can't keep wearing yourself out trying to help. At some point, it's the person's responsibility to deal with his own life.

4. Leadership is not rescuing. As time goes by, a good helper will continue to find ways to instill hope, without trying to rescue the people he's trying to help (or without trying to do it for them) and without assuming responsibility for the problem or situation.

This will keep both of you healthier emotionally!

5. Stay positive. Sometimes this is the most helpful step we can take. By being a positive influence, we are helping people to hold onto their hope.

Don't give in to the sea of negativity. Help others face their doubts and move past them.

6. Try to lead and be of service without telling the person what to do, and avoid taking over or running the person's life.

7. Listen. Take the time to listen to what people are going through. You don't always have to say or do much, just listen and be there for them. Let them know you have heard them. Give your undivided attention and your heartfelt understanding.

8. Help people to help themselves. This reminds me of teaching people how to fish . . . that will feed them for a lifetime, whereas is you save them from their problems you aren't helping much . . . in the long run.

9. Speak of your wisdom and experience, but don't preach to them. Allow them to think for themselves and to make the decisions that influence their lives.

10. Keep in mind the nature of true happiness. When you help others to attain happiness, you are happy, too, but you must lead a balanced life and avoid becoming overly focused on the lives of those whom you are helping.

11. Express hope in a calm, relaxed and confident manner. Think and speak optimistically. Display hopefulness in your actions, without criticizing, which only turns most people off.

12. Above all, don't get discouraged when the person you are trying to help doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. Sometimes change -- real change -- takes time.

In some situations, the best a leader can do, besides caring about people, is to provide a ray of hope. There may be no one else in the person's life who is remaining positive and hopeful. No one who is inspiring them to keep trying, to keep bringing their dreams into reality.

Stop to reflect on what your positive example may mean to those in need.

Whatever you do . . .

remain a beacon of light and hope.

Remember, by keeping hope alive, you are leaving the door cracked in someone's life . . . so they can always feel your optimism, warmth and acceptance . . . and someday walk through to freedom.

Richard Hamon is a professional therapist and coach with over 25 years of experience. Richard's Relationships For Success Coaching helps people to enjoy truly satisfying relationships and find great success in all areas of their lives.

Richard has written a unique eBook, The Ultimate Relationship Solution: How Secrets Discovered From A Near Death Experience Can Help You Ignite Passion and Realize Success in All Your Relationships.

The eBook tells about an actual Near Death Experience the author had in 2003, which transformed his life and led to a series of insights, revelations and secrets about building extraordinary relationships.

You can find Richard's eBook, The Ultimate Relationship Solution at: LINKED TEXT

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5 Essential Attributes in Leading Others

By Duncan Brodie

Leading others brings new demands on individuals and requires them to have or develop new competencies and attributes. People are often promoted into posts where they are required to lead others because they were high performers at doing a task orientated job. Yet leading others does require different skills from doing something yourself. So what are 5 essential attributes in successfully leading others?

Providing feedback

The first essential attribute in leading others is to learn how to provide feedback. People in organisations are looking for feedback, praise and recognition for what they are doing to help you get results. A large proportion of our life is spent at work and we all like to feel valued. If you had to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 in terms of providing feedback (10 being excellent) what score would you give yourself? Providing feedback takes little or no time, costs nothing and is one of the biggest contributors to a happy workforce and staff retention levels.

Listening and involving

An autocratic style where people were told what to do and get on with it will not work in the modern business world. People want to be involved in contributing to key decisions and feel that their points of view have been heard. As the leader, you clearly need to take the final decision. Chances are that not everyone will agree with the decision but if you have taken the time to listen to and involve others in the decision process, they are more likely to get behind the decision you reach.

Getting the balance right

One of the challenges in leading others is getting the balance right between delegating to others and keeping track on progress. Too much involvement could result in the other person or team thinking that you don't trust them. Too little involvement could mean that you find out too late that things are off track and deadlines are going to be missed. Making the time at the outset to brief others, check their understanding and agree review points is a simple but effective way of getting the balance right.

Setting objectives

In leading others, it is vitally important to set clear objectives. Leaders sometimes fall into the trap of believing that a long job description with lots of detail about what the employee is required to do serve that purpose. In addition to this, make a point of setting around 6 key objectives for each person. These objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, results orientated and time limited.

Training and developing

When leading others you need to make the time and give the commitment to training people. So often employers put in a lot of effort when it comes to employing people but make no investment of time and/or money in training and developing people. As a leader, you need to make the time to help people grow and get better at what they do.

Successfully leading others is vital to the success of an organisation. You may already be performing outstandingly in this area. If you are the challenge is to keep yourself at this high performance level. If you are still developing as a leader, where do you need to focus on to move towards outstanding performance?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with professionals and progressive public and private sector organisations who want to develop their management and leadership capability in order to achieve more success. With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.

You can learn more about Duncan, Goals and Achievements services and products and sign up for his free e-course and monthly newsletter at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/

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