We often associate sliding door moments with romance.
But what if you also applied sliding door moments to the people we work with?
I had a sliding door moment in 2016. At the time I owned Human Tribe, a training business that focused on developing management and leadership capability. We had a stand at a 2-day expo and were giving people a Genos EQ self-assessment and a short debrief session. We had people lining up, it was a huge success.
At some point during the expo, I met Jess. Jess had great EQ, she was vulnerable, confident and had amazing energy. She shared with me that after working as a Personal Trainer and as a manager of personal trainers, she was looking at getting into leadership coaching and asked if I had any tips on how to get into this line of work.
That was the sliding door moment. I wasn’t looking to hire another facilitator at the time, but I knew Jess would be perfect, and I offered her a job on the spot. As someone who used to work in Human Resources for nearly a decade – I never offered jobs on the spot, but I just knew.
And Jess started with the business a few days later.
Jess 100% fulfilled her potential and in my opinion, she is one of the best management and leadership facilitators in Australia. Three years later, in 2019, Jess purchased Human Tribe from me and in the last five years, she has taken her business from strength to strength.
Over the weekend we crossed paths at the Capital Chemist Annual Forum, Jess was the MC and I did a keynote to the network. It was great to be back in the room facilitating again together. I love seeing Jess succeed with Human Tribe, and personally, I’m pretty chuffed with myself that I stepped through that sliding door back in 2016 and offered her the job on the spot.
As business leaders those sliding door moments happen all the time. Often those sliding door moments benefit us and our businesses a lot (Jess certainly did that for 3 years when we worked together). Other times, it’s more of a benefit to the person we connect with when we step through that sliding door. Seeing Jess do great work with her clients for the past five years doesn’t technically benefit me or my business, but I would argue the joy of watching her success is a benefit in itself.
As a leader, if you’re paying attention, you will know it when you meet someone with that x-factor – you will feel it in your bones. I encourage you to step through that sliding door, offer them a role, connect them with someone you know or do something to support them.
