The 3 Things The World Needs Right Now
Civil unrest. Law and order. It's not what you think.
Some days are those difficult ones where you have 5,000 things running through your head. You could be anxious or, at least, mentally consumed by all of them. Yesterday was like that for me.
Here in the U.S. we’ve been experiencing some . . . unrest.
We’re confusing the use of force with the use of our voices. We’re confusing mental illness with “good and evil.” And we believe that we’ll be heard if we shout louder.
One of the life lessons I’ve had to learn over and over again is that humans want to be heard. They want to share their ideas and be respected. The trouble is that everyone wants to be heard so much that they forget to listen to others.
This is true in life and it’s true in our work.
I fought with myself a little bit because I really wanted to transition this post into something about productivity and collaboration. I actually started writing (and then deleted) a whole section about hard work.
Really, what I’m talking about here is leadership.
Most of life isn’t war, where you need to command and dominate to survive. Most of life is doing the detective work to find enough common ground with someone such that you can respect them instead of seeing them as a threat.
This is so, so hard.
Leadership looks like empathy, discovery, and respect.
Let’s break those down.
Empathy looks like listening without talking or inserting yourself.
Discovery looks like insight that unlocks answers.
Respect looks like finding common ground in a disagreement so that you can develop esteem for someone else.
One of my mentors told me once:
“Your job is not to be the judge. Your job is to be a detective.”
-Scott Woods
Today, I’m going to ask you to do the very difficult work of being a detective and not a judge. This is a critical piece of developing your own leadership as well as strong, respectful relationships around you.
Today, I’m asking you to be a leader.
“Fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
-Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Do the difficult work of empathy, discovery, and respect.
Our world needs it more than ever.