Look what you did
As you read those words, what tone (or punctuation) did you impute on them?
Did you hear them spoken to a child that just made a mess? Or an employee that did something wrong?
I find this phrase interesting, because you often associate the phrase with saying something after a mistake, where you point to the spilt milk or the broken vase and you say, “look what you did!” You can hear the tone of voice, the criticism, the judgment, and the reproval of your actions.
The phrase, “look what you did”, is often thought of as something negative.
I thought about this phrase from the leadership perspective when I read Sally Helgeson’s book, How Women Rise. Sally writes about how individual contributors are all about what they did, and leaders are all about what you did.
I can now visualize these words coming out of a leaders’ mouth, in front of their organization saying, “look what YOU DID,” and sharing the impact of the work the team accomplished together or highlighting an individual contribution.
Those 4 little words take on a whole new emotion. How different it feels when they are used to acknowledge, appreciate, and share in the success.
Something I said to a client recently, that I’ve often said before, but for some reason, this time, they came back and said that it really resonated. So, I will share it and perhaps it will spark something for one of you.
“When you shine the light on somebody else, it reflects back on you as a leader. You are now NOT about your individual accomplishment. You are now about what you do, with and through, those that you work with and that work for you.”
Be safe this Labor Day weekend and enjoy your time with family and friends.