Week 42: Help Without Hindering – #AlphaFemaleFriday

Week 42: Help Without Hindering – #AlphaFemaleFriday

“ WEEK 42 / 133 – 133 WEEKS TO SUCCESS ”

Have you ever seen someone struggling to complete a task? How often do you want to swoop in, do the job for them, and help them out because you’re just that kind of a person? Have you ever thought that because you swooped in to save their day that, in the long run, you’re not helping them out after all? This week I have been thinking about what it means to help someone out without hindering them.

As the famous saying goes, if you give someone a fish, they eat for a day, which sounds helpful because after all you did give them something to eat. On the flip side, if you actually teach them how to fish, then you end up teaching them for life, which is way more helpful in the grand scheme of things because now you have taught them a skill which they can pass on to others. The cycle continues and you have not only helped one person, but possibly every person that person knows who goes on to teach their whole group of family, friends, and peers!

In the workplace, the same principles apply. Whether you’re in the role of a manager who has to oversee a group of individuals or as a coworker who is just trying to help out a colleague, you can do much more for your team if you follow basic leadership principles. If you are always seeking to help others by doing the job for them, then you will continue to be seen as a functionary cog in the machine that can be used and toss away.

Instead of doing someone else’s job, help provide them with the resources and support to do them. Lois P. Frankel notes in the 42^nd chapter of Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, “if you’re busy doing, you don’t have time to provide the vision, guidance, technical support, and oversight required to be a leader.” Sometimes in order to help someone you need to take a step back. Don’t help someone because you want to be liked. Help someone because it’s what you want to do for them.

Cheers,

Kelly

@AlphaFemSociety tweets by @KellyRGonzales                                                                                

About:

Each week, I take a tip from Lois P. Frankel’s book, Nice Girls Still Don’t Get the Corner Office, and explore how each of these tips affect myself and other women in similar positions on the road to becoming the women we want to be. There are far and few between who are a few steps behind me, and many more who are far advanced. I found that Lois P. Frankel’s advice applied to novice, intermediates, and experts alike. It helped me see that I was already doing right, served as a reminder to keep on doing what I was doing and how to keep that momentum going. The book also showed me areas where I could improve, and gave realistic tips to jump on board. There are a total of 133 tips, and explore one tip per week in a program I call: 133 Weeks to Success.

Join the movement using the hashtag #133WeeksToSuccess with posts which are posted every #AlphaFemaleFriday.