Secret Names

Secret Names

Last year, John C. Maxwell, one of my mentors, asked each of his certified coaches and speakers to volunteer for one week in May to serve by sharing four important leadership lessons. Frankly, I thought it was a great idea! This past week, we did just that, and I have to tell you, it was powerful.

If you weren’t able to listen in to our Online Youth Leadership Summit on May 10, I urge you to listen to the replay by clicking here. These are life-changing lessons.

Our session leaders (Kary Oberbrunner, Lisa Schaefer, Holly Eisenhut, and Trudy Menke) talked about self-image, bullying, personal character, and failing forward to success. These are issues we faced as adolescents, and these are still issues teens face today.

If you have teens (or pre-teens), be sure to share the replay with them. The fact is, it is also incredibly helpful for adults as well. How many of us carry over issues from those years well into adulthood?

One of our members was told frequently by her mother, “I buy you books and send you to school, and you still don’t know anything.” To the mother, that probably seemed like a casual statement, but that stuck in this person’s mind and became one of those “secret names” Kary Oberbrunner talks about. It didn’t matter that this person graduated summa cum laude, received honors in high school and college, was featured in Who’s Who, and went on to achieve career success. None of that mattered, because this person could only hear her mother’s voice saying, “You don’t know anything.” It was not until she was in her forties that she came to the realization that this was really an incorrect statement – everyone knows something. At that point, the healing began, but not without years of pain and insecurity.

I say that to say this: we as parents and leaders MUST be cautious of the labels we place upon those who follow us. In this week’s Leadership Insight show, we talked about how to bring out the BEST in a team. I urge you to listen to this as well and to seek to bring out the best in your children and in those on YOUR team.