Today Sharon explores the topic of asking for help. You will learn about why flexing this skill is a critical component of successful leadership and sane living, what holds us back from asking for help, and why we’ve got to push forth and ask anyway. Finally, Sharon offers 5 Rules of the Road for how to get past your own discomfort or habit of not asking for help and move into the practice of doing it anyway.
Ideas Shared
Why Don’t We Ask For Help:
- We don’t know what to ask for
- The “Busy-ness Cycle”
- It makes us uncomfortable
- No one can do it as well as me
- I’m in control, thank you very much
Why We Ought To Ask Anyway:
- Our own capabilities are finite
- We can’t do everything
- You can leverage others’ strengths to cover your own blindspots *
- You will learn something – about yourself, about your habits
- Going it alone can get lonely and it’s necessarily riddled with your own limitations. You can’t see beyond you.
5 Rules of the Road for Asking for Help:
- Be clear and specific
- Be open
- DON’T ask at the emotional breaking point
- Keep doing it
- Embrace Hearing No
Resources and Links
- Learn more about the Camino de Santiago – a pilgrimage walk through Spain that profoundly changed my life. (Among other things it taught me that sometimes getting to the end goal just isn’t the point.)
- Psst. If you are curious about walking the Camino yourself, here is a must read book, A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago.