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I’m feeling a overwhelming message from the Universe this year. I have now read 3 books that deal with dreams and the next book I picked up … yep you guessed it talks about dreams. I am learning that while I was a wife, mom, student and business owner during the last recession I somehow stopped dreaming and just concentrated on living/surviving. I am out of practice at dreaming for myself. I can dream with my clients. I can encourage them and help them clarify what their dreams are; however, I stopped doing it for myself. Well that changes right here and right now. It’s time to listen to the Universe and start dreaming. How are you? Do you dream? Do you want to come along for the journey?
The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly is a quick, but powerful read. You would think the application of the book would have you starting with your leadership team. What do they dream? What do they want? BUT no Matthew has us looking inward. The first step in the Dream Manager is to look at your own dreams. The first step is to write down 100 dreams in the following categories: Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, Psychological, Material, Professional, Financial, Creative, Adventure, Legacy and Character. He encourages us to ask for help in the planning process. Many of these will have a financial aspect to them, so hire a Financial Advisor to help us plan and save for our dreams. It’s not just enough to write them out accountability is crucial to realizing our dreams.
The premise is unless we have gone through the process, we cannot build a dynamic team of dreamers. The next step is to bring your leadership together and have them do the same thing. Take the time to have a dream session meeting. If your leadership hasn’t gone through the process, then how will they be able to lead their team in the dream system. To me it’s not rocket science, it’s relationship building. It’s taking a moment out of the busyness of our business to just get to know the people we are working with.
I can not say it better than Matthew so I will quote him. “The passion of dreams is contagious. This is the passion that our teams need to be injected with. Get them passionate about their personal dreams and that passion will overflow into your organization.”. Matthew goes on to say that it’s an incredible feeling to help someone with their dreams and I can attest to that as I help my clients reach their dreams. If a person struggles to have passion about their own dreams how can they every get excited about your dreams. You are a business owner – your business is one of your dreams. We want those that work with us to be passionate about our dream. “Getting your people in the habit of pursuing and achieving personal dreams and they will be effective at chasing down and achieving goals for you.”
It’s now time to get your whole team dreaming. Helping them set and achieve goals in their personal lives will set them up for success in achieving goals in their business life. It really is to your benefit as the business owner to spend time developing your team personally and professional.
Mr. Kelly talks about this creating a “new” breed of loyalty. A loyalty that is healthy – not staying because it pays the bills but staying because they are realizing their dreams and being rewarded for assisting you in realizing your dreams. It’s important that the individual’s purpose and the companies align. Otherwise trouble is just ahead.
Here’s the bottom line – You can not expect your team to do for you what they are unwilling to do for themselves.
Here’s the 4 steps consolidated:
Write your own dream list.
Spend time each day getting to know your team’s dreams – take a real interest.
Have a Dream Session with your team.
Use your employee evaluations to set up dreams and the accountability
There you have it. It’s been a tough year, but I know dreaming will give you and your team the hope and desire to not only survive but thrive through it.
What’s your dream?