“Nurturing is not complex. It’s simply being tuned in to the thing or person before you and offering small gestures toward what it needs at that time.”
Mary Anne Radmacher
The TEN QUALITIES of A POSITIVE INFLUENCER using the simple acronym INFLUENCER are: I – Integrity with people, N- Nurtures People, F – Faith in People, L – Listens to People, U – Understands People, E – Enlarges People, N – Navigates for People, C – Connects with People, E – Empowers People, and R – Reproduces other Influencers.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word ‘NURTURE’ as the care and attention given to someone or something that is growing or developing. Nurturing the people in your life is the key to making them feel valued. Author Gary Zukav said, “The loving personality seeks not to control, but to nurture, not to dominate, but to empower.” It is good to know that people are influenced most by those who make them feel the best about themselves.
‘NURTURE’ [verb] means to FEED or NOURISH. To nurture means to GIVE something of substance to another person. Nurturing therefore is not about GETTING but GIVING! The question is, what does a NURTURING POSITIVE INFLUENCER GIVES? Dr. John Maxwell and Jim Dornan in BECOMING A PERSON OF INFLUENCE offered five suggestions: LOVE, RESPECT, SENSE OF SECURITY, RECOGNITION, and ENCOURAGEMENT. Dr. John Maxwell said, “When a person feels encouraged, he can face the impossible and overcome incredible adversity.”
To become a POSITIVE INFLUENCER, you must become a CEO; Chief Encouragement Officer to the people you are nurturing because the ability to influence is a natural by-product of encouragement. Love of course is the foundation of authentic nurturing because before you can do anything else in the lives of others, we must show them love for without it, there can be no connection, no future, and no success together.
There’s a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months but to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: “Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.” On Saturday, eight hundred Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. (Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, p. 13). The power of love brings out people`s best and makes an impact on their lives.
Learning to be other-minded is the key to becoming a GOOD NURTURER. When you NURTURE people well, they will receive among other things: FEELING OF SIGNIFICANCE, A SENSE OF BELONGING, HOPE, PERSPECTIVE, and POSITIVE SELF-WORTH. Since NURTURING does not come natural to many, to become a nurturer therefore requires you to: Be accessible to people, believe in them, commit to them, lift them up to a higher level, give with no strings attached, and give them opportunities.
