Bright Consultancy

My dad’s wisdom – part 1

My Dad is one of life’s great diplomats.  His colleagues have consistently valued his calm, principled approach to the drama of working with other people.  I’ve learned a lot from his sensible, common sense approach to work – so much the opposite of my own tendency to extremes of thought, effort, and emotion.

One of my Dad’s favourite pieces of advice is something I say to myself – and to my clients – all the time.  He says ‘If you arrive at work in the morning and you have 3 giant unsolvable problems on your desk, leave them alone and at least 2 of them will have solved themselves by lunchtime’.  This is so often true.  Yet how often do we bash away, trying to solve things, and making ourselves and others crazy in the process?

It’s amazing how often, when ignored, problems solve themselves, or at the very least begin to unravel.  Sometimes, when we are quick to fix things, we deny other people the opportunity to take action and contribute.  Sometimes, when we feed problems by worrying about them, we fixate on the ‘problem’ aspects of the problem, narrowing our focus and restricting our thinking and behaviour. Sometimes, we like the challenge of wrestling with tricky problems because doing so gives us a sense of achievement.  At what cost to our peace of mind?  And some of us tend to feel responsible for everyone and everything.  If that’s you, you might want to examine whether you really trust other people (and yourself).  Einstein posed the question ‘Is the universe a friendly place?’  Is your world a friendly place?

Next time you feel overwhelmed, leave a few things alone. Check with them later, and see what has happened.  You might just find that they’ve solved themselves.

Tags: decision making, leadership, managing teams, motivation to work, negativity at work, problem solving, self improvement, stress management at work, working in a team