The other day, I overheard a conversation in an online leadership community.
The person asking for advice said, “I've had a strange conversation with my direct report. I asked them about joining a team with high visibility. Their response was, ‘I don’t care about high visibility, I'm more interested in learning.’ I was taken aback.”
How often are we this parent who tells our child to put on a sweater because we’re cold? (I’m certainly guilty of that.)
Are we genuinely concerned with their well-being and growth in those moments? Or are we projecting our dreams, aspirations, and insecurities onto them?
Our employees telling us that they do not value achievement as much as maybe we do is a rare gift. We should thank them and pay them back by supporting them in a way that’s aligned with their values.