Three steps to sublime!

“Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.”

These quatrains are quoted from “A Psalm of Life” by the American poet Henry Longfellow (1882). 

Longfellow dedicated the seventh stanza of this poem to inspire his listeners by reminding them of how great their predecessors once were and that they, his listeners, can do the same and leave a legacy behind that is worth telling. 

What I learned from this piece of the poem is that even in the workplace today, we, as professional employees, have the power to positively influence our colleagues so that we have a more intimate and productive working environment.  

The chance to achieve that is by the value employees adds to support their teams. Value here means what employees can add of skills and expertise to help their teams overcome the challenges that they might confront in their journey to achieve excellence. 

For example, value can take the shape of solving complex problems or coming up with initiatives to improve the overall performance of the team. According to the World Economic Forum, complex problem-solving skills are considered the most important soft skill required to succeed in business these days.    

In other words, our value is our strong commitment that we display in the work we do every day. It is the one extra mile takes us steps ahead. So, as a team, when all of our values are united as one entity, a solid team is formed that can go above and beyond any limitation. 

When the team’s efforts jointly are directed toward a shared goal, great results are achieved. As commonly said, success is always a team effort, and it’s also a contagious process. This success can be looked at as exemplary model to be followed by other teams because every team always aims to be the top in all aspects. The greatest given gift to man is the unfulfilled potential.   

Benchmarking and best practices can become the footsteps that guide other teams’ followers to achieve their best too. This is where influence is shaped and the will to become better takes place. 

So, by definition, influence is the consequence of what an employee adds of value to the team and of what successes the team accomplished. 

These three qualities — value, success, and influence — incarnate what I call the chain to sublime. 

I also prefer to call them the Tripartite Key to Sublime!