Personal examples of "Breaking Down Barriers"
Working as the human resource manager for an electrical company, I was in charge of doing a site wide manager appreciation activity. Part of this was doing the Amazing Race, and we put the managers into teams where they had to accomplish a series of tasks that required them to think outside the box and be innovative. It was a fun exercise, and we learned more about the individual skill sets of the managers. The leadership placed the managers that showed the best leadership skills with the teams that were struggling. The result was teamwork flourished and created more productivity within the teams.
When my oldest son was seven, we were at the grocery store and found a wallet with money inside lying outside the grocery entrance. I could have easily picked up the wallet and continued inside, but I wanted to teach my son a lesson. I decided to show my son the wallet on the floor. I asked him what we should do with this wallet? Of course, he wanted to keep the money inside. I asked him to put himself in the person's shoes that lost the wallet and how he would feel if he had lost money or his favorite Star Wars ship. He told me that he would be very sad and worried. I informed him that if this wallet got into bad people's hands, they would steal the credit cards inside and do bad things with them. Once he contemplated the pros and cons, he picked up the wallet and gave it to the store manager. The store manager thanked him and said he would find the person it belonged to. I praised him for doing the right thing, and you could see that he was pleased with himself.
While working as the Communications Manager for an internet provider call center, we were tasked to motivate employees to accomplish the goals and provide excellent customer service. We composed a group of team leaders from each department to compile enlightening and encouraging post call surveys from customers that grateful for what the customer service representative had done for them. It was cool to see that these calls were motivating to employees because they could see how their relatively small interaction impacted the customers' lives. This was more effective than throwing money at them because it gave them pride in workmanship instead.