I recently heard a quote: “Everyone is your superior in some way.”
While this could be taken as the title of this post says, that everyone is better than you, I love it because it brings a truth to light.
Everyone has different strengths and gifts. You may be one of the best pianists in your city, but maybe your little sister can sing 10x better than you.
Maybe it’s something small. Maybe you’re the CEO of a huge corporation. The greeter at WalMart probably knows more about the way the store is set up than you do. A bit of a ridiculous analogy, but the point is that everyone has different life experiences and because of that, everyone is a little better at something than everyone else. They don’t always realize it, but they are.
I love thinking of this for myself. It makes me realize that I can always learn from others. Whether in a situation where that makes sense like I’m an employee under a supervisor or if I’m in a leadership position. Even leaders can learn from others below them.
In fact, often the best leaders put people who are better than them at certain things in the roles around them.
A great example of this is the president of the US. A good president doesn’t need to be the best at all areas of running the country, but he needs to be good at leading a team of people who are the best. He needs to have good people skills to be able to lead his team.
If he learns from the people around him, he can then use their wisdom to make the decisions necessary to run the country well.
You can learn from everyone around you. Whether they be the president or a WalMart greeter. Don’t be so quick to treat others like they don’t know anything. They may know less than you in one thing, but as a good learner, you can always learn from them too.