Recent experiences have confirmed for me how our basic human nature prevents us from thinking the best of others – instead we jump straight in and think the worst.
I marvel at how and why we do this. And I especially reflect that this happens no matter the depth of relationship and trust. It is like we have this deep inner voice that challenges us to find fault.
To change this, courageous leaders need to challenge their deep seated habits and be aware of their personal triggers.
Importantly, they need to take responsibility for their own emotions and as a wonderful colleague shared with me once – they need to own their core truth.
This is hard to do as it is much easier to play on the pendulum of divulge (which is like spraying your emotions out on someone) and the opposite side of this pendulum is avoid (where you abstain from sharing how you are feeling altogether). No wonder we find it all so very hard.
Courageous leaders are aware of this pendulum and challenge themselves to own their core truth and take time to reflect so they do not spray their emotions all over someone – and always opt for thinking the best of others. And we absolutely need more people to adopt this approach.
