Walk Tall Wisdom

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗻𝘆 𝗢𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: "𝗪𝗲'𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝘆"

I was going for my daily walk one evening last week and came across a young guy - about 22 - who was doing some exercise. We started chatting. He was very personable and asked me what I did for a living before telling me he was in real estate and was quite new at it.
He asked some really good questions - clearly an ambitious and very smart young guy.

Then he told me that where he worked, the older people in the sales team had no interest in training or sales meetings - they "knew it all". He said that was fine, - their choice - but the problem was that he was hungry to learn.

He loved training and learning new skills but the older colleagues wouldn't attend so his boss had stopped scheduling any training.

The irony is, he said, was that the older ones were so "cocky" that they had no idea what they didn't know. For instance he said they had no idea how to deal with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. They had no idea how to communicate with young people who were often cashed up and ready to buy. They had no idea how to just listen.
These were all skills this young guy wanted - and knew he needed - but it simply wasn't provided at his workplace.

The worst thing of all, he said, was that his older colleagues didn't know that they didn't know a whole pile of stuff - they thought they knew it all. They also had huge experience, but there was no opportunity for him to learn from them.

I'm interested to know the experience of others in getting people like this guy's older colleagues to recognise that there is always something to learn. What have you done to open their eyes?

𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝟳𝟰 𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀. 𝗪𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝟵𝟲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟵𝟴.

Here's the secret.
Last week I chaired a Special General Meeting where two critical resolutions needed a 75% majority to pass.
34 people attended. 64 proxy votes arrived. Both resolutions received over 95 votes in favour.
How?
𝙄 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙. Simple as that. 𝙄 𝙖𝙨𝙠𝙚𝙙.
I didn't ask once, nor twice. I asked persistently, personally, and with genuine follow-up over four weeks.

Jack Canfield's book 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 taught me this years ago.

My mentor Catherine Palin Brinkworth reinforced it: "𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙣𝙤 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙖𝙨𝙠."
Important meetings don't succeed on the night. They succeed in the weeks before — when you do the work nobody sees.

Get your ducks in a row. Then walk in knowing the result.

What's the best piece of preparation advice you've ever received?