Actively support the achievements of others

by Jason Forrest, CEO at Forrest Performance Group

Once you’ve learned how to actively support the achievements of others, you’ll feel fully unleashed to push your mortgage company to new plateaus of success.

The best leaders, captains and employees aren’t necessarily the best because they’re the smartest, or because they know the most about any particular thing, or even because they’re the kindest. It’s because they thrive by supporting others, because equipping their employees and teammates with the tools to succeed is part of their DNA. Walk into the best mortgage companies in the country and you’ll see one common thread: a collaborative atmosphere where everyone wants to see everyone else succeed. You cannot outgrow your current pace without this behavior of drive.

I had to learn this lesson on a deep, experiential way before I became the sort of CEO my company needed me to be.

I poured a lot of blood and sweat into my training formulas over the years, and I unlocked a lot of doors that allowed me a unique perspective on selling effectively. I picked up many these tricks by failing, meaning I lost sleep and maybe even added a few gray hairs to learn them. So when I hired my team’s first trainers, I felt a tug; do I really want to build out competition for myself from the seminar stage by spilling all this knowledge I worked so hard to cultivate? If I teach all these things, couldn’t someone steal my ideas and use them as their own?

In the midst of this, one of my trainers asked me a pointed question that changed my entire perspective. Before Tony Robbins was an international phenomenon, he was mentored by a man named Jim Rohn in the 1970’s. Rohn taught Robbins everything he knew, and Robbins took those learnings, made them his own and became a sensation. What if I’m the next Jim Rohn and not the next Tony Robbins?

“Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever,” my trainer asked me, “if you trained the next Tony Robbins?”

Ever since, my entire view shifted. I never want to hold back my own learnings I know if they can be beneficial, and just like Rohn empowered Robbins I want to empower my employees and clients to be their best. Robbins can only do what he did because Rohn paved the way for him, and now I freely share everything I know because it spreads good into the world. That in itself is its own reward.

How much better off would our companies be if everyone had this sort of supportive mindset about their coworkers? No matter if you’re a CEO or a brand new employee, sharing knowledge or tricks that can unleash your company and teammates to achieve new goals is uplifting and empowering. Our gifts are only useful if they’re shared.

In 1992, a man named Henry Rowan and his wife, Betty, donated a staggering $100 million to a small public college in southern New Jersey named Glassboro State College (it was later renamed Rowan University). While the vast majority of college donations go to the richest schools, Rowan’s donation was noteworthy because of its effect on what was otherwise a small, sleepy regional school.

Rowan’s donation had as big an impact as any single college gift in American history. The school took Rowan’s donation and quadrupled the size of the campus, including brand new engineering and medical schools, grew its endowment by $176 million, nearly doubled the student body, and added a host of new scholarships.

Why did he choose Glassboro and not the more prestigious MIT, which Rowan was also considering giving to?

“Without a doubt, MIT is the finest engineering school in the world,” Rowan explained. “But a gift of this magnitude would not have the impact at MIT that it will have at Glassboro.”

Rowan was so concerned with actively supporting the achievements of others that he wanted the gift to go to a school that had the greater need. His $100 million wouldn’t have been nearly as impactful at a school like MIT, which has an endowment of $15 billion. At the time of his gift, Glassboro’s endowment was $787,000.

When we support others, studies show that stress-related activity in our brains actually decreases while reward and caregiving-related activities increase. Not only is supporting others good for our external circumstances, but it’s good for our emotional wellbeing as well.

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Jason Forrest is the CEO at Forrest Performance Group in Fort Worth, Texas. Jason is a leading authority in behavior change and an expert at creating high-performance sales and best-place-to-work cultures through complete training programs. FPG has won five international awards for its behavior change programs in sales, leadership and customer service. Connect with Jason @jforrestspeaker on Twitter, and on LinkedIn.