60 seconds with: Liz Jackson MBE
In the first of our new “60 seconds with” series, Liz Jackson, star of Channel 4’s Secret Millionaire series and owner of award-winning company Great Guns Marketing for 17 years, talks about inspiring teams to achieve winning goals.
How do you inspire a team to set big goals and to think positively?
Some of the things that we do as a management team to get people excited about the future – we close our eyes and we just take some time to think.
I don’t know if you realise or notice how busy life is. Sometimes just taking time out to think is really important, and we, the coaching team, just imagine the future.
- What does amazing look like?
- What does a goal that we can get excited about look like?
- What offices have we opened?
- Who are we employing?
- What kind of talent have we got working in our business?
- What kind of technology have we moved on to?
All of that stuff. We take this amazing exciting picture of the future and we don’t leave the room until everyone is smiling.
What sort of thing prevents people from reaching their potential?
People don’t always like the idea of setting massive goals because there might be a chance they could fail. People don’t love failure in business.
However, unless you create the culture that allows people to fail and learn from their mistakes, you never hit the great big goals.
You have to allow people to step outside their comfort zones and to do things differently to achieve amazing things.
How do you get your ideas across?
My job isn’t to push my ideas on people. My job is to coach them, ask them clever questions, push them to that limit make them think as hard as they can.
It’s beautiful to watch somebody think, to come up with the answer themselves. When they do that, the passion’s there. I don’t have to sell anything or get them to rehash it. They already hashed it. It’s their idea. They own it. They absolutely want to make sure it happens.
If you are brave enough and empower them to come up with their ideas, you end up with this dynamic, dangerously proactive workforce that’s just great for business.
Specialise in Leadership with the University of London Global MBA.
Liz Jackson has an honorary degree from Staffordshire University for her remarkable achievements. She is the author of Start Up (2005) and opened her own business in the year she lost her eyesight. Liz was awarded an MBE in 2007 for services to business.