Every now and then, someone will remind me of something I knew but had forgotten or perhaps simply got out of the habit of thinking about or doing. Such is the case with Kelly’s small but very interesting book “The Dream Manager.”
Kelly reminds us that the best way to be successful ourselves is to help other people be successful. As business leaders and/or owners, we of course want our businesses to be successful. We work hard at that. Yet often we forget to help the people who work for us, with us and around us to be successful. If you are like me, you’ve gotten that message several times over your career – from Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar and any other number of business leaders and motivational speakers.
Kelly has written an excellent story, quick read and compelling call to get back to the basics of helping ourselves by authentically working to help others. More importantly, Kelly gives us some practical ideas and concepts for how to do this in a practical way. The first four steps for you as a manager are to: 1) Write your own Dream List. Examine each of the twelve areas (see below) and come up with a list of one hundred dreams. 2) Spend half an hour each morning walking around, visiting with your team members. Begin to take a sincere interest in their lives. 3) Pull your team together for a Dream Session. Send out a memo or call a meeting to explain what it is, how it will work, and what it is designed to achieve. If you are concerned about how it will be received, have some or all of your team members read the book before the Dream session. And 4) Use employee reviews as an opportunity to take an interest in the dreams of the people who report to you.
The twelve areas of interest to stimulate your ideas for dreams are: Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, Psychological, Material, Professional, Financial, Creative, Adventure, Legacy and Character.
I thought enough of the concepts in this book that I chose it as the primary gift for my colleagues and clients in honor of the yearend holidays.
Click here to see the book on Amazon.