I recommend reflecting on your experience with this chapter’s exercise before continuing. You can reflect about anything you found relevant, but here are some questions you may want to consider:

How did you feel preparing to talk to others about supporting them?

How did your conversations feel to you?

How did they seem to like the conversations?

Did you get to more or less detail than you expected?

How did the process of transitioning to management compare with how you set up management relationships before?

How did the support and management relationship go following the first conversation?

Where and how might you apply your experience in the rest of your life?

Data from Exercise

This exercise is to sit with someone you’re leading and recalling his or her passion and the MVIP you created to create a role for you to Support and Manage the person.

What to Do

You’ve connected a few people’s passions to your tasks. Some of the tasks will take time, money, and other resources to complete. If you only Inspire people, they’ll want to do the task but may lose motivation, run out of resources, or hit other problems that require support.
1. Before meeting, on your own, think of the tasks you are leading people on and put yourself in their places. Write down what they can’t provide themselves.
2. Meet one-on-one with each person you are leading.
3. Remind them of your conversations connecting their passion to your task so they feel understood and motivated during this conversation. (Note that their passions may evolve, so be prepared to learn and adjust.)
4. Together, think of what support will make them effective and free them from distraction and what communication and check-ins you’ll need. Write these things down together.
5. Figure out what you can and can’t do.
6. Create work plans for both of you.
7. Support them according to the plan until the project finishes.

Do this exercise with each person you are leading.