PF Weekly Reading Line-Up # 23 Grab A Brew: Listening, Learning, Building And Sharing Equals Growth

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Listening, learning, building and sharing equals growth that is what the old happy guy up the road told me this morning when I bumped into him at the post box. I always stop to chat to him because I enjoy listening and learning from him then sharing with all of you. Now that he is living the retirement dream life debt free and healthy as a horse you can tell how much he misses having people around him.

Below is essentially paraphrasing what I learned from the old happy guy today. The talk made me think about my life and how I approach parts of it at home, at work and right here on the blog. He made me feel as if I am on the right path with areas to improve in because I know that I am generally a happy guy who likes to put others first while taking care of my own needs. I also know that I am not perfect and in order to grow I must be willing to change and I may fall down the ladder. The key is to pick right back up, learn from our mistakes and carry on.

In conversation I asked him how he was able to run such a successful organization the way he did and with such a large team of employees. It wasn’t easy from what he says but it also didn’t sound like rocket science when it came to people skills. The business closed down shortly after his retirement because he said that things just started to fall apart. I sometimes wonder why and maybe his conversation today could be a hint as to the success and failure of some businesses and even life and relationships in general.

He is still married to the love of his life and although he wants to golf all day they still bicker like any other couple but they do one thing that is important to any relationship, they listen to each other. I might just dig a bit deeper next time we chat but for now he shares his insight about life and his tenure in a senior level capacity. I’m almost enjoying learning bit by bit from him. Who wants the whole pie when you can have a piece at a time?

His answer seemed so simple, almost like common sense but sometimes common sense isn’t so common to some. My understanding of what he was trying to tell me was that the reason he was able to move from the bottom of the company to the top was from these four simple words. I’m the one who picked out these four simple words from the conversation as if I was meant to, and he knew that I would.

Listening, that he did as he listened to what everyone had to say even if they were the clean-up crew or the secretary who greeted clients as first contact of the organization. Everyone added something important to the organization whether if they are part of the team or a competitor. There is always something to learn from individuals around us as we are all unique, he said. When you listen to others you stop talking and let them do the talking in order to build relationships. Building relationships allows you both to work together to create ideas that you can then take and share with others.

We also take others ideas and share them because when we help others out we are able to grow. We don’t just grow in numbers we grow in strength, we grow in arms, we grow in believers. There were so many times that people would get what they wanted and or thought they would get more if they did menial work or dropped in to say hi once in a while to make me happy. Life doesn’t work that way. If you can’t take time for others, how can you expect them to take time for you?

Listening

It all made sense to me and what I understood from his little story this morning was that in order to succeed sometimes we need to stop focusing so much on ourselves and listen to what others have to say. When we become so competitive in nature we overlook the simplest of ways to grow and that is through building relationships and sharing. When competition becomes the goal we lose sight of all things necessary for growth to happen and that is the team. Whether that team is your fans, your fellow bloggers, your co-workers, your friends and family we need to take time to give back.

If you just stick around to get what you want from someone and then bugger off never to be seen or heard of again that growth period stops. You have now just shared that all you wanted was a quick fix, an easy way to get to the top with someone else’s help.

Learning

I’ve always been interested in talking to those who are successful because they didn’t get to the top because they were just “lucky” you must have strengths as a leader, as a partner, a team-player and as someone who cares about what others have to say and finds ways to help bring ideas to life.

I think that’s why I get incredibly emotional at times when I watch the TV program Undercover Boss because seeing how these successful CEO’s really want to help out employees and their organization improve and grow hits a little part of me inside. I know that, I would be that person if that were me as a boss. I enjoy giving back and seeing people grow, seeing my goals come to life while learning and helping each other out. They give to the organization and the organization gives back to them.

Building and Sharing

I’ll continue to listen to what others have to say, I’ll learn from those I surround myself with whether here in the blogging community, my fans, friends, family, co-workers while building relationships. I’ll also share the knowledge and wisdom that I’ve learned in order to grow. I will continue setting goals knowing now that those who are full of themselves, jealous or trying to keep up with the Joneses whether at home or at work may just end up buried because all they care about is themselves.

If we are wise we will know that the only way up the ladder is when people believe in you, you believe in them and you believe in yourself. Open up your mind, open up your world and open up your eyes before everything around you crumbles. People will only give for so long before they say, good-bye.

Always something new to learn from the old happy guy… so on that note below are blog posts of the week that I read and would like to share with all of you to help them grow. Please take the time to give them a read and comment sharing what you have to give back to the articles you read.

-Mr.CBB

Do you Listen, Learn, Build and Share in order to Grow?

Do you team up with like-minded people even if they are on the opposing side in order to help each other?

Growth… how do you achieve success without falling down the ladder with no one there to catch you?

Top Recipe

Each Sunday on my Facebook Page is Frugal Food Sunday where I invite other Foodie Pages to share their Frugal recipes with my fans. Each week I will pick one of those recipes to feature here on the blog for all of you. Since we love berries in the CBB house when Sweet Heat Chefs shared their recipe for Blackberry Strawberry Goddess dessert I knew right away that was something I would love to make. So a big thanks to this weeks Top Recipe and blog: Sweet Heat Chefs!!

So next time you see this photo posted… come share a recipe from your blog and you might get the next feature!