To My Healthy Hustlers…

I’ve heard that it takes one moment or one person to say something that can change us forever. What they say doesn’t have to be radically different than things we’ve heard before. But, it’s about how we listened. Somehow, someway that information broke through that hard head of ours and we heard it. It turned on a light bulb. And, it made us act. 

I had this moment and this person. 

At the time, I was helping another business owner with a development plan for her employees. As part of my role, I needed to identify the key pillars of her employee’s jobs and see how each of them performed in these respective pillars. 

When doing this, I realized something. The highest-performing employees owned their strongest pillars. The mid-level were high in one pillar and fair in the others. But, the entry-level employees focused only on their weakest pillars. In essence, they were trying to figure out how to not be bad instead of focusing on how to be great. 

While this was a true “ah-ha” moment for my development plan, it makes so much sense beyond business. When we are uncomfortable, unsure, or unconfident, we obsess over how to cover up the things that we see as flaws. Which makes it damn near impossible to shift our perspective and focus on what is working for us. 

So the question became, how did I make employees see this? How do I reveal their strengths in a way that makes them want to jump out of their chair and own it? 

It was clear to me that I needed them to do a self-evaluation of these categories. I can only help lead them to the water, I can’t make them drink it. If this was going to work, they had to be the ones taking ownership of their development plan. 

While working with some of the entry-level employees and seeing some initial success, I was simultaneously meeting with the senior team to learn how they have owned their strengths. 

I was having coffee with one of these “high-performers” when I mentioned an idea I had for building the newer employee’s strengths. Their response was not what I expected. They told me, “Oh we had that idea years ago, but it’s just not going to work. They won’t listen.” 

I'll be honest with you. I was kinda pissed. It’s not fun having your idea completely shut down before it ever had life. But once I got over that immediate and selfish response, I was frustrated. If this was already tried before and failed, then why the hell didn’t someone tell me? 

At the end of the day, all I wanted to do is to help these employees succeed. Giving them the tools to lean into their strengths could only boost the morale of the staff, improve the quality of the product, which would, in turn, would make the business more profitable. 

I felt stuck and I had to give the owner a weekly update on my progress. On the call, I asked her if this had been done before. 

Her response was what changed me.

She said, “Elle, more times than not, people give me an idea and expect me to execute on it. But, I’m only one human being. Ideas are a dime a dozen. I have so many thinkers around me. But what makes your different is that you are one of the few DOERS that I have. And, that's rare.” 

I’d be fairly certain to guess that the owner didn’t realize what she just gave me at that moment. She had turned on that light bulb in my head.

When the call was over, I thought, “Why do I DO for others, but not for myself? I need to start DOING what I’ve wanted to.” 

Unfortunately for the owner, this was the moment that I decided to move on from the company and pursue my own endeavors. She will never realize the power she gave me, nor how she forever changed my entire story. But, I constantly think about her. I hope one day that this happens to me. That I can say something that radically changes their life for the better. 

With this, I want to welcome you to the Healthy Hustler Family. 
This is the place where you hear, YOU CAN. 
This is the time that you say, I WILL. 

Let’s get started!
Elle Leonard