The Shoulder Tap

Awesome people tap people on the shoulder.

It’s a practice that has created sliding door moment for so many people.

Being tapped on the shoulder is suggesting and asking people to consider future career and role opportunities.

A client commented yesterday that she believed her job is to connect people with opportunities and make her role a future option for an aspiring leader.

Six weeks ago, a teacher tapped my daughter’s shoulder and suggested she’d be a great school leader in Yr 12.

It wasn’t on her radar especially with the dreaded public speaking involved.

I just said goodbye to her as she left to catch the school leaders camp bus!

Whose shoulder could you tap today?

As many people wake to the horror news of the Malaysia Airlines (MH17) flight crash, how are you preparing to lead your people as they deal with this news?

When I reflect on 9/11, my team located in our Melbourne offices had a desperate need to talk, to be close to others and to focus on the disaster, not on work. We moved our office to a local cafe for a few hours to make sense of what was happening.

We are social human beings: we are meant to be with others, we all have a varying degree of caring and helping values and we like to share our experiences. It makes sense then to see life through the lens of your people as they try and cope and make sense of what has happened.

Today, focus on being a social human leader. Help your people deal with this shock by creating an evironment to discuss their thoughts, feelings and experiences. Talk less about business while you share a coffee/tea/juice. Just be there and be you.