00:00:00 Thanks for joining me on Episode 5 63 of the inspired Stewardship by cast I'm Scott Brookins from scott brookins dot com. I encourage you to find the way to be inspired to start your dream business and find freedom. And one way to do that is to be inspired by this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friend Scott made her. I would argue that in a very real level, autonomy is the foundation of that connection, because without autonomy without the ability to choose, it's hard to then choose what you want to develop,
00:00:41 mastering about. And it's hard to establish your own purpose and reason for being. If you haven't got the ability to choose, autonomy is fundamental to purpose and engagement. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. Podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired Stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world In today's episode about investing in others by stewarding your time I talk with you about what autonomy is,
00:01:31 how autonomy builds purpose and engagement and how it comes not from control, but rather from conversation as we talk about stewarding your time.
00:01:43 Wouldn't it be great if you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long? It turns out you can't.
00:01:49 All you have to do is use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon when you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon,
00:01:57 and a small commission will come back to support the show just that quick. If you enjoy the show when you are ready to buy from Amazon,
00:02:05 just use inspired stewardship dot com slash amazon. Dan Pink in the book drive talks about three things that people need that will help them feel driven to accomplish something that will help him feel connected and help them have a sense of well being around themselves and what they're doing.
00:02:28 And these air autonomy, mastery and purpose. Now we're gonna talk about mastery and purpose at other times,
00:02:35 but right now I want to focus on this idea of autonomy, and the interesting thing about it is a lot of times we think of that word differently.
00:02:46 At its simplest point, Autonomy simply means having the freedom to make your own decisions. But oftentimes we think that means having the ability to do anything that we want to do at any time,
00:02:59 and that's not the same thing. We also think sometimes that autonomy means working by ourselves or working alone.
00:03:06 But again, that's not the same thing. The truth is, you can be in a partnership like Ah,
00:03:12 mother and father, raising a child together and have autonomy and yet still be collaborating with others. You also,
00:03:21 when you have autonomy, it doesn't mean that there's no guidelines and it's just the Wild West and you do whatever you want at any time you want.
00:03:28 It doesn't mean working without a net, and it doesn't mean working without direction or in isolation. But it also means that you don't work with complete micromanagement when everything that you do is looked at it.
00:03:44 Studied and controlled at all levels of autonomy is not the lack of control, but it is giving that control with boundaries to you as a person.
00:03:58 The interesting thing is, is autonomy is one of the biggest areas where, whether it's people working in a job or whether it's a child being raised by parents,
00:04:08 whether it is you running your own business, whether it's an employee or the owner or customer, our client,
00:04:16 we may not know what it is. We may not be able to put words around it, but we know when we don't have it.
00:04:22 We know when things are being controlled in a way that isn't useful. See, autonomy is what allows us to begin to build purpose and engagement with the task.
00:04:35 I would argue that in a very real level, autonomy is the foundation of that connection because without autonomy,
00:04:43 without the ability to choose, it's hard to then choose what you want to develop mastery about. And it's hard to establish your own purpose and reason for being.
00:04:54 If you haven't got the ability to choose, autonomy is fundamental to purpose and engagement, and that's often where we're working when we're trying to help others when we're trying to invest in.
00:05:08 Others were trying to find ways to help them identify their purpose, to help them become more engaged with their calling,
00:05:14 to help them to go out and do the thing that they're supposed to be doing. That's one of the things that I try to do.
00:05:21 And in doing that it requires that I help people find that sense of control, that autonomy that they need.
00:05:31 And here's the interesting thing. You know, I found out that control which let me tell you, let me tell you the truth.
00:05:39 I'm a bit of a control freak. I liketo have control over everything. I'm one of these people.
00:05:44 I don't like change. I don't like chaos. I don't like it when I feel out of control.
00:05:49 And yet what I've begun to find is that autonomy comes not from that sense of controlling everything, but rather from the sense of being open toe,
00:06:00 listen to talk and have conversations. When I'm investing in others, when I'm working with someone is a coach,
00:06:07 I discover that to toe one relationship, how you have to listen because you have two years twice a cz Muchas.
00:06:15 You talk because you have one mouth. This ratio of sitting down with other people and finding out what it is that drives them not only gives them a sense of autonomy,
00:06:27 but it also gives me a sense of autonomy. It's funny, but out of conversation comes comfort around the ability to make choices,
00:06:39 because what happens is as you have conversations with people and by the way, again, if this is an employee or a job situation,
00:06:46 this still works. You begin to have a stronger alignment around the values that that person has, or that business has.
00:06:54 You begin to foster relationship and connection across all levels of that building, and you begin to see examples of how that value and principles are lived out.
00:07:07 And if all of those things are in alignment that all of a sudden having employees that have the ability to make decisions works,
00:07:14 you look at a company like Southwest Airlines, and at the end of the day, they empower their employees to make decisions,
00:07:23 even really big decisions. And sure, sometimes mistakes are made. Sometimes something goes wrong. But because they empower their employees more often than not,
00:07:34 their employees stay engaged and end up helping and serving the customer in a way that creates a valuable experience.
00:07:41 You have to recognize the idea that if there's autonomy in the situation, people are going to make mistakes,
00:07:48 but over time you build a sense of trust, and you create the ability to make choices within boundaries.
00:07:54 You show those examples, and you have those deeper conversations that allow people to develop the tools and the behaviors and the thought processes that allow them to succeed.
00:08:08 And you do that over time through conversation, not control. Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast.
00:08:24 As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way toe Live your calling.
00:08:36 If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up for our stewardship of time tips.
00:08:44 Siri's by going to inspired stewardship dot com slash time or texting 44222 time tips And that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time until next time investor time,
00:09:06 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world