Article written by Dawn Burnett, Reporter for OnFire Books
Gens Johnson, Elite Conversation Speaker & Coach
When you sit and analyze the happiness level of employees in most organizations the statistics are shocking. According to a recent Gallup study, 70% of Americans at work are disengaged. This disengagement costs organizations billions every year. So what is the answer? How do we get employees to become more focused? According to Author, Speaker and Development Coach Gens Johnson the answer is love. Turns out Gens is right, in fact, according to a Qualtrics survey, employees with a high confidence level in their company’s senior leadership are 5 times as likely to remain with their employer and produce. The support they receive from their leader causes fewer turnovers, more confidence, better productivity and an improvement to the company’s overall bottom line. “It all stems back to a leader’s intentions,” says Gens.
Gens Johnson: When you love people you are all about developing the full purpose. I found that there are 3 steps in leaving a legacy, living a fulfilled life and being extremely successful:
You have to put your number one focus on yourself, it’s all about development because nothing happens without a leader, it all rises and falls on leadership.
There are real leaders and fake ones and if you don’t have love you can’t be a fully present, successful person, because leaders help change other people’s lives and love is the magical salt to achieve that. You are loving people until they love themselves and you believe in people until they believe in themselves. People don’t do what you say; they do what you do. Real leaders have an organic following of people and that love and positive energy is what attracts people. When you have a leader that loves you, you will do things that you didn’t even think you could do.
Dawn Burnett: I would agree it’s important Gens for employees to feel valued. When we are appreciated we feel less stress. With that comes improved focus, more energy, and patience and better all over health resulting in fewer call-ins for sick days. As simple as this sounds, why do some leaders have trouble understanding or choose to practice more love and support in the workplace?
Gens Johnson: I believe some leaders fail because they are missing that ingredient of love and compassion for themselves first. To me, there are the people that want to be a leader because they know leadership is everything but they don’t have that internal compass of love and doing things for the right reasons, instead, they do things for selfish reasons. Leadership is all about others, not self. Yes you have to develop self but it’s about having a sincere desire to help others get what they want and then in return, you will get what you want.
Dawn Burnett: So what brought you to this place of understanding Gens? What’s your story behind why you became a coach and started your own business, wanting to bring out the best in people?
Gens Johnson: Being a faith-based person I believe we are all here to make a positive difference in the world and leave a legacy. I see so many amazing people that have so many gifts and talents but they’ve been beaten down to a place where they’ve beat themselves down and so the world is missing out on their calling and on their greatness. It pains me to see amazing people with so much potential living beneath it. So because I love people it is my passion to want to help them, that’s why I wrote my book.
Dawn Burnett: We’ve talked a lot about love and building people up Gens and that’s true we can’t give away what we don’t have. So what would you say is the most important skill a person can possess first within themselves to ensure success?
Gens Johnson: Vision, you have to know where you are going and be able to see the big picture or you can’t get to where you are heading. I also believe that you have to have a tremendous amount of faith and make a decision from the beginning that you will succeed and never quit. I feel success is a conscious decision and most people don’t do that before they start something. You have to have a winning mindset. When you decide to win you will just do it despite what happens and how long it takes.
Dawn Burnett: Yes, I would agree Gens it is a mindset. I also think successful people are constantly learning and growing, they invest in themselves and they learn from other successful people. That’s why it’s important to surround yourself with other successful people so you can find out how they became successful. It’s equally important to take responsibility for yourself and where you are at, develop your strengths, stay focused and in the game, and then proceed as if success is inevitable.
