Solutions are Easier When...
Recommendations on solutions, respect, leading smarter and apologies
“When life gets scary and difficult, we tend to look for solutions in places where it is easy or at least familiar to do so, and not in the dark, uncomfortable places where real solutions might lie.”
Robert Mauer
Thank you to Shane Parrish and Farnam Street's Brain Food newsletter
“The most common thing holding people back from the right answer is holding on to your previous beliefs. Instead of instinctively rejecting new information, take in what comes your way through a system of evaluating probabilities.”
Thank you to Shane Parrish and Farnam Street's Brain Food newsletter
“A new perspective is worth at least eighty IQ points.”
Alan Kay
Computer pioneer
George Silverman, The MindSkills Guy: “Just keep asking yourself, ‘How can I view this from a different perspective, viewpoint, lens, filter, context, belief system, and overview? How would someone completely different view this?’”
“I learned that just because you're the ‘leader’ — and I think this can be in business or whether you're the CEO or the captain or whatever — don't think you know everything.
“You bring a lot. And you bring, probably, a very special talent, and maybe a talent that is more glorified in society — not necessarily more important — and that's maybe why you're at the top. But the best leaders know how to say, ‘I don't know.’
“(They) Know how to delegate and know how to not only get the most out of themselves, but try to get the most out of everyone else. Allowing people the space to be themselves and bring their special talent to the table is the most important thing. Even within the team, if just the loudest people in the room are talking, Becky Sauerbrunn is not going to talk over them. She will never talk louder than me. But that doesn't mean that I should be speaking.
“She's smarter than me in a lot of different ways. And I need to understand, as a leader and as someone who does have a loud voice, I need to recognize I don't know everything and create that space for Becky.”
Megan Rapinoe
Speaking in Time magazine
“Respect is like air. As long as it's present, nobody thinks about it. But if you take it away, it's all that people can think about. The instant people perceive disrespect in a conversation, the interaction is no longer about the original purpose—it is now about defending dignity.”
Ron McMillan
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
This seems so easy to understand yet why don’t humans always deliver respect more often. I don’t believe we realize when or how often we don’t come across in our communication or actions, respectfully. Thoughts?
What are we doing, do we know we’re doing it and are we cognizant of the the reactions and responses we will get, or are experiencing?
Character and weakness of it and the degree of ethics we are practicing (or not) reveal themselves in business whether we believe they do or not.
People notice, perceive and judge, seeing us in a trustworthy manner or in a ‘keep my distance from’ conclusion and attitude.
The question becomes how do we most want to be experienced, perceived and judged? What probability of outcomes do we want to increase and which outcomes do we want to lessen the likelihood of occurring?
A diamond: “It’s not (considered) an apology if it comes with an excuse.”
Michael Toebe is the creator of Reputation Notes and founder and specialist at Reputation Quality, a practice that serves and helps successful individuals and organizations in further building reputation as an asset — and when necessary, ethically and responsibly protecting, restoring or reconstructing its health.
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