For more than a decade I’ve been thinking about challenging conversations.
How do you usually respond? (I’ve done both.)
Viktor Frankl survived a concentration camp and said this…
Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.
Post Charlottesville conflict continues to fill the airwaves and cyberspace, encouraging chaos and division.
…So how have you been responding? Are you:
The process below will help you fully leverage your freedom, while strategically using both your mind and your heart.
Bridge Builders listen to the perspectives of others, instead of fearing their knowledge, experiences and convictions.
With vision, respect and wisdom they connect:
I recently went into a store to pick up an order for someone else. When I arrived, I asked for the supervisor of that department by name. She was gone for the day, so a teenager tried to assist me and I proceeded to ask for the order by name and then by description.
The teen was was unaware of the order and asked her two coworkers for help. (Both of them were in their late 50’s.)
Her coworkers just shrugged, said they didn’t know anything and walked away.
So the teenager looked everywhere she could think of, and then asked one of her coworkers for help again.
The elder woman snapped at her and walked away again.
Since our return home from Saudi Arabia, (A place I once feared and had zero desire to move to.) I have been facilitating a series of workshops for students – sharing what day-to-day life was like while emphasizing critical life, leadership and people skills that they will need throughout their lives.
In each workshop students are given a visual of a natural process that will happen the rest of their lives – as they decide if they have the courage to leave their comfort zones or the grit to survive when life hands them circumstances they can’t control.
Some of the questions I’ve been asked about Saudi are worth sharing:
