Chad Silverstein argues that telling someone "I believe in you" is a powerful motivator, and that leaders should also honestly say when they don't believe someone. Calling out dishonesty calmly and respectfully surfaces truth earlier and addresses problems before they grow.
Chapters
Being able to tell someone that you believe in them is a very, very powerful way to motivate someone, give them that extra boost that they might need and really esteem somebody. You know, what's a bigger gift than being able to believe in someone? If I had to answer that question, I'd probably say the belief in telling them that you don't believe in them, because again, they're not going to hear that from many people. But when you can listen to an employee or a co worker say something to you and you just know, they're full of it, you've either seen it before or you just know a fact and you want to call it out. And I think there's real power in being able to tell someone, you know, I don't believe you. And I think you can do that. I think you can do it with that matter of fact mindset. Because, you know, why, why sugarcoat it? And you don't have to come off like a jerk if you're going to tell people the truth. You just have to tell people the truth. And you know, somehow some people always have the right things to say in certain situations, but that doesn't mean they're telling you the truth. And if you're leading anything, you're being lied to more than anyone and you're the last to find out about things. So just call people out and do it in a nice way, do it your way and tell people the truth regardless of the fact that it might hurt. And I think if you can do that, you'll start to see, you'll. You'll have your gut tell you a lot things that are right, and you'll be able to root things out that you normally wouldn't have been able to deal with. And there's real power in being able to tell people that you don't believe in whatever it is that they're saying they're going to do or whatever they said to you.
