The Oak Tree in the Acorn

After a couple of years putting teams together, there’s one particular thing I’ve found equally hard to practice and important for helping people grow: mirroring their potential back at them.

Goethe said something like:

Treat a person as they are, and they will remain as they are. Treat a person as they could be, and they will become what they could be.

But how you treat people is a result of how you see them.

To affirm someone’s worth and potential without believing it, is manipulative. People will smell it. You cannot fake it. There’s no shortcut. You have to develop how you see people and look beyond their current behavior with an eye of faith. Which is not easy. I think we default to judging people by memory, not by potential.

I once met someone who believed in me more than I did myself.

This was probably the most transformational part about living in Cambridge for a couple of years. A lot of people around me saw me for what I could be, and reflected that back at me.

I ended up believing them and it changed what I did with my life.

As a manager, friend, or partner, you can play that role for someone. Don’t take it lightly.

Look for the oak tree in the acorn.