Having My Back Without Sheltering Me

We all know that crazy things will happen in life. There are daily risks and opportunities to learn something. For many of us sometimes we have to walk through a challenge to learn our lessons. When we are young our parents told us a thousand times to be careful by the stove, it is hot. It often never really stuck with us until the one time we accidentally touched it and we learned what they meant when they said it was hot. Next time I guarantee you were much more cautious around the stove.

We protect our kids, when they are really little we don't let them near the stove. When they get older we might stand next to them and warn them as they get too close. Protection makes sense up to a point. If your kid is about to go off to college and you've never let them in the kitchen for fear they might get burned you are going to have a problem. Sheltering them is not helping to protect them.

Any team, any relationship, you want to have a culture where everyone feels others have their backs. Teammates should protect each other. Family is a team, you should protect each other. Your company is a team. Do you shelter your employees from having to deal with challenging projects or have hard conversations with customers? If they never have a hard conversation because you are covering for them they are never going to be able to handle it in the future. Don't shelter them, don't hide them away from the heat. Protect them, let them know you have their back and you are on their side. Let them feel the heat without letting them get burnt.

We all have circles that we run in, I hope you feel protected in each of them and will do whatever you can to protect the others beside you.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What A Little Kindness Can Do

Image
I was at the grocery store recently and I had the opportunity to help a lady who had her hands full put her cart away, it literally took less than ten seconds of my time. I walked away thinking about how good that smile and thank you felt. I realized something about myself that I hadn't ever really given much thought to, how much I like being kind to others. I don't know how much of an impact it really has on a persons life, but I hope that in a world with so much negativity that I can make a small positive impact. If you think of your own life, I imagine you can think of some random acts of kindness that someone did to you, and most importantly you remember how it made you feel. I had to make an appointment one time and the receptionist made a comment about getting things setup with the important person, and I told her that she was the most important person right now because without her I wouldn't get an appointment. I imagine that she has a difficult job at times, deali
Read more

Don't Let The Perfect Be The Enemy Of The Good

Image
I've heard this saying a number of times recently, in a variety of formats. I like the version that is attributed to Voltaire mostly because I like pretending to be smart by quoting Voltaire. There are too many times we don't like to move forward because we don't have all of the information, haven't covered all of the scenarios, or feel like we don't have all of the experience we need. We don't apply for our dream job because we feel like we don't have the experience needed or are simply afraid of being told we aren't right for the position. We don't want to start writing because we feel like there are lots of other writers that are much better than us. The part we never see is the countless hours of practice and bad writing that happened to become better, to be the writer we see today. Everyone starts out as a novice, a beginner. You can still make music even if you aren't Mozart. You can still write even if you aren't Shakespeare. You
Read more

Just Keep Swimming

Image
Have you ever stopped to think how brilliant Dory is? You know, Dory from Finding Nemo. If you forgot her she would understand. She had this motto that work wonders no matter what you face. Good things happen to us in life. Bad things happen in life. Frustrations happen. Setbacks. Losses. Wins. Through all of it, you really need to "Just Keep Swimming." When things are going well for you, it is easy to get lazy with what got you there. You need to keep improving, keep getting better. You need to "Just Keep Swimming." When things aren't going well for you, it is easy to give up. Setbacks don't define you. Most people will tell you out of their greatest defeats led to something even better. Learn from it and move forward. You need to "Just Keep Swimming." Life will throw all kinds of craziness your way. Whatever happens, good or bad, "Just Keep Swimming."
Read more