You may have heard me mention in the past that the difference between confidence and arrogance is that, confidence demonstrates that you know a lot; arrogance implies that there is nothing new you could learn! Annually I speak at 50-60 global events a year. I often show up early and stay after my own session to engage my audience as well as to hear others present their unique ideas or independent perspectives.
Recently, I heard a fantastic guy, John King of Cultural Architecture deliver a workshop on leadership for a group of up & coming international execs. He described four types of people in any gathering – those who are:
1. Fun & Funny – they’re often well paid and well known;
2. Funny – they’re often very intense and not a lot of fun to be around;
3. Fun – all of us can be; and finally
4. Neither – they try to be funny but often turn out to be jerks!
So he shared the following three rules for the session: 1. Be fun! 2. If you can’t be fun, be pleasant! 3. If you can’t be pleasant, don’t be a jerk! How great is that?
He also created a very strong delineation between the three spaces that each of choose to participate in our focus:
- Auditing, where you show up and know it all, soak in the material and your primary goal is to get through the day;
- Best I Can, where you participate only when called upon and could care less about the outcome; or
- All In, where you develop a vested interest in your personal and professional growth, be present, participate, and really focus on improving your outcome as well as supporting those around you!
Needless to say, John had the group at hello! I was honored to be there, took several pages of notes and hope to work with him again.
Here are my questions of you:
- Are you confident about your knowledge, talent, skills, and abilities; or arrogant?
- Which personality type shows up when you attend an event?
- What’s your focus and level of participation when you’re there?
How do you know and what are you doing to never stop learning and growing? As a contributor, a manager, a leader, and executive or simply as a human being?
Make it a great week.
