If you’ve been playing along with the home version of our game you know that I’ve been on a jury in a civil trial for the past couple of weeks. The trial is over, the jury dismissed and so I’m able to write all about it, which I’m not going to do in great detail. However, the basis upon which we rendered our verdict got me thinking and, of course, it became a decent business lesson. Continue reading
Tag Archives: life lessons
Mom Talks Business
Mothers provide many interesting business lessons, don’t they? I’ll preface this by saying it was a little different 45 years or so ago when I was growing up in that mothers tended to do front-line discipline while fathers were court and, frequently, executioner of last resort. Mothers dispensed pearls of wisdom in between the tears; fathers did the same in between removing their belts (that’s all tongue in cheek, mostly). Continue reading
Filed under Growing up, Helpful Hints
Enablers
One of the things that’s bound to come out of Michael Jackson‘s death is a picture that shows how many enablers he had around him. You might have them too, even if you’re not addicted to anything stronger than coffee.
In a clinical sense, enablers are described as third parties who take responsibility, blame, or make accommodations for a person’s harmful conduct. In simple terms, they help you to do something that hurts you, ultimately. In the benign sense, enablers are “just trying to help”, they say, and it’s no lie. They’re trying to help themselves, not the person they’re enabling. Giving an addict drugs or access to drugs helps you. You cement your “friendship” or you benefit financially. Giving a subordinate advice with thoughts of “how can I get this person back to work” rather than “how can I help?” is a form of enabling as well in my mind. You’re focused on your needs, not theirs.
Compare this with a facilitator. This is someone who helps people understand their objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. They’re focused on helping as well, but YOU, not themselves.
Think about it. Who around you is an enabler – helping themselves in the guise of helping others? Who are the facilitators – the ones helping others without a care for themselves? Which one are you?
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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks
Consult Keith 