How we Treat Anyone. . .
You know that quote, “how you do anything is how you do everything?”
I've been thinking about a possible spin-off, which is:
“How we treat anyone is how we treat everyone.”
The idea is this:
We have an opportunity to treat every person we encounter with care, whether that person is checking us into our hotel room, or the lifeguard at the pool, or our server at the restaurant, or a colleague on our team.
The last few weeks have been filled with observations of interesting behavior, ranging from the wild events of last week, to more mundane moments of dismissiveness or disrespect:
Patrons at the pool, leaving heaps of garbage for the lifeguard to clean up.
A colleague encountering another colleague for the first time, and walking past without saying hello.
An incident of road rage where the driver was so angry that she parked her car in the middle of a 3-lane road, got out, screamed at the other driver, and threw her canned energy drink at the other driver's windshield.
Occasionally, I might blame these types of interactions on the full moon or Mercury retrograde, but these can't be blamed for the recent events above.
Of course, we all have bad days, but I'm left wondering:
What are the conditions we can cultivate within ourselves, so that we are able to engage more thoughtfully and compassionately with the events unfolding outside of ourselves —with the people and situations around us?
It's a continuous practice, of course.
And for leaders, it is arguably the most important one of all.
This post was originally shared via Friday Favorites —a free weekly curation of resources, reflections, and inquiries on leadership and life. Join us here, and join the weekly conversation, if you’d like.
