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When I first met former President Jimmy Carter, I had a lot to learn.
It was the late ’90s and I was a rookie journalist covering a trip Carter took to Colorado to help 100 at-risk youth experience the transformative power of the outdoors.
For a new reporter, an interview with a former president of the United States is the opportunity of a lifetime. And yet I went into it embarrassingly unprepared and with the attitude that the Nobel Prize winner was lucky to be getting some face time with 26-year-old me. I was as naive as I was confident, and that’s an unpleasant pairing.
Thankfully, because he was a former business owner, Naval officer, and leader of the free world, Carter had plenty of experience with guys like me.
Instead of taking the “dumb questions get dumb answers” approach to our interview he adopted a posture of respect and mentorship. He didn’t treat me like the person I was being in that moment, he treated me like the person he believed I could become someday.
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At one point in our conversation, I bluntly asked, “How can we get people to stop pulling guns on each other?”
Although a well-intentioned question referring to the global community, in the context of a story about at-risk youth my question could easily have been seen as a callous, simplistic affront to his 100 guests.
But Carter didn’t take offense. Instead, he took an opportunity to validate my potential while explaining how for some people, a lack of belief in their own potential can cause them — including the young people he was there to inspire — to make dangerous decisions.
“This is something that a person like you, or like me, can’t even envision because we know what our limitations are, but we also know what our potentials are, and we have ambitions for our potential to be realized in some fashion,” he gracefully explained. “We believe that when we make a decision it will make a difference. They don’t have that, so we try to help them get it.”
And that’s how it went for the full interview. The former president answered even my most uninformed and uninspired questions as though they were being asked by the most insightful and influential reporter on earth. He treated me like I was in the front row in the White House briefing room. He saw the best version of me, and it was to that person that he directed his answers.
I walked out of that room elevated.
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That was over 20 years ago and since then I’ve had the chance to meet and work with hundreds of new hires in entrepreneurial ventures all over the world. Most of them have been humble, driven, and talented beyond their years, but occasionally I find myself staring at a version of my 26-year-old self — someone with more irritants than experience.
And while it’s tempting to dismiss a new team member for their baseless bravado or off-putting apathy, I always take a moment to remember the way President Carter treated me and try to show my new colleagues a version of themselves they’ve never met before.
This approach doesn’t always work, but when it does, the ventures I’m part of are more successful, and I find myself surrounded by kind, supportive, and insightful people.
Related: Encouraging Your Company’s Young Employees Is Crucial for Long-Term Success. Here’s Why (and How to Do It).
I recently got a thank you note from a former colleague that read, “Although it seemed I wouldn’t last more than a few weeks, you didn’t give up on me. You believed in me, challenged me, and taught me everything I know. You’ve made me smarter, pushed me to be a better person, and you took a chance on me…You are the most influential mentor I’ve ever had.”
I actually got the chance to give the former president a similar message of gratitude. Six years after our first interview, he gave me another opportunity to meet with him—and I didn’t squander it. I came into that room prepared, respectful, and a better version of myself — I came into that room closer to the person he’d introduced me to years before, and I took the opportunity to thank him for the gift of that introduction.
As Jimmy Carter’s life and passing continue to make global headlines this week I’m reminded of that impactful gift he once gave me. It’s one I’m happy to share with you, and I hope it will help you elevate your management style and overall quality of life as it has for me.
