Suivez-moi doesn’t really mean “so much” read on to find it’s true meaning…
When I went from personal production to a leadership position several years ago I had an experience that I wanted to pass along to those I worked with in my new position. You see there was a time as a multi-line insurance agent that I really didn’t like my job. But it wasn’t my job I didn’t like it was the people in my office. The irony was, I was the one who hired them and I was also the one who trained them. I had abdicated too much authority!
I hired a consultant named Tim Hosey from Bloomington Indiana and I will forever be in his debt. Tim taught me much about people and about how to take control back from my team so I was the leader. I offered them a chance to have a new career and I hired a brand new team. That’s where the phrase suivez-moi comes into play. It’s French and it means follow me. One of the examples Tim used to teach me was that in World War 1, French lieutenants would yell suivez-moi to their men as they blew their whistle with revolver pulled and lead a charge up and over the trench line toward the enemy. I needed to lead with both my outlook and my actions. That’s been almost twenty years ago and I’ll never forget that powerful two word phrase and the image it still creates in my mind.
Are you leading by both your attitude and your actions or have you abdicated too much? Both are relatively easy to correct… just ask me sometime!
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