Let’s examine the Maya Angelou rule and how it can assist you in becoming a better manager and group leader.
When we researched the tale of Douglas Conant, a corporate executive who accepted a job as CEO of Campbell’s Soup in 2001, we were amazed by Campbell’s history. Campbell was a fairly poorly performing company with a harmful culture when Conant took over the firm. Despite the fact that the company’s workforce was remarkably unengaged, Conant managed a remarkable turnaround in which employee engagement and profits rose substantially in less than 10 years.
To what extent was Conant successful? He began by walking the company instead of running it. Conant wished to log 10,000 steps a day to better understand the employees’ problems and inspire them to buy into the company’s new purpose.
Conant says that most cultures don’t celebrate contributions well. Writing thank you notes to our employees was one of her initiatives to celebrate them, and she says that over a decade, she wrote over 30,000 notes. You’d find their handwritten notes posted on employee bulletin boards everywhere they went in the world, even in employee cubicles.
What is the Maya Angelou philosophy, and how can it boost your managerial and team leadership abilities? Let’s examine it in detail.
Focus on how to make people feel better
A quote by Maya Angelou that I refer to as the Maya Angelou Rule is:
“What you said may be forgotten. What you did may be forgotten. However, people will never forget how you made them feel.”
According to research, Ms. Angelou did not create coin this quote. However, she definitely lived by it. If you have ever read one of her poems, watched a documentary, or simply heard her speak, you know what this mean: You do not simply hear her words; you experience them.
How is Maya Angelou’s spirit expressed in daily life?
However, what about the time they spent listening to you? What about their desire to work beside you to complete a job? What about the thank yous, the words of praise, and the check-ins to see how you were doing?
Every act of appreciating another person, each moment you take to spend with someone, strengthens your bonds with others in the same way that brushstrokes contribute to a beautiful painting. These acts create a setting in which people feel safe, cared for, and respected, resulting in a culture where each individual is inspired to reach their fullest potential.
How can you empower your team to succeed if you are in a leadership position, whether as a business owner, manager, team lead, or parent (Lamb, 2013)?
Don’t let perfectionism prevent you from trying. You don’t have to express yourself perfectly or speak eloquently.
Maya Angelou taught us one thing: the way you make people feel is what really matters, not the words themselves.
