Today’s tip: Speak your truth!
Be polite; be quiet; be kind. Respect your elders; honor your parents; respect your boss. Obey your teacher, your mama and, above all, obey your wife (this is just for Latinos 😊, I think…) All of these -perhaps some more than others- are wonderful things. Sound advice that we should follow IF the expected behavior is born out of legitimate care and not the product of fear. Be polite, or else… be quiet, or else… When fear pops into the equation, the intrinsic benefits of politeness, kindness, respect, empathy, and obedience go down the drain. When this happens, slowly but surely, we start conditioning our responses to gain immediate satisfaction -or avoid a loss- disregarding what we believe to be right. And when we do it, our moral compass gets lost and our self-value degraded.
Unfortunately, this is a process that starts very early at home and at school. Those children asking questions, doubting, suggesting alternative options, are rapidly branded ‘trouble makers,’ ‘rebellious,’ or ‘dumb’. We grow up witnessing the benefits of saying yes, smiling at all times, agreeing with authority, and keeping quiet. Then, we go into the labor market, and we are expected to speak up, to question, to innovate. No wonder most organizations struggle to achieve an effective speak-up culture where innovation thrives. However, there are two things we can do to change the status quo: a) revise the way we are educating our children, both at home and at school; b) agree with yourself and commit with your immediate team (to begin with) to speak your truth, while recognizing that you may be wrong but you just don’t know it.
Since we are going to have a weekend to ponder on this, I am sharing two videos that I hope will inspire you to start next week with a decision to take action!
The danger of silence:
On being wrong:
Take care, and stay safe.