This Week’s Focus Point: Picking Up Tomatoes
Last week, my wife and I were walking into the grocery store when a guy about our age walking out of the store had his small plastic box of tomatoes plummet from his cart and spill out on the ground. My immediate reaction, was “bummer,” while proceeding to walk in. Barb is a way kinder person than me (and those of you who know both of us don’t need to be told this). She immediately asked, “Do you need help,” and then proceeded to stop and start picking up tomatoes before he could even answer. Of course, I then sheepishly joined the tomato picking by association to the kind person, which ultimately is to my own personal growth.
What does picking up tomatoes outside of a grocery store have to do with any of us?
Here’s the deal…the mere act of genuine kindness resonates in every business and organization regardless of size. Barb volunteered to help someone she didn’t know who had a misfortune happen. How many of us eschew showing genuine kindness to people we employ, work with, live with, and/or care about because we are either not paying attention, don’t think it’s our problem, or are in such a hurry to take care of ourselves that we become uninterested in the plight of those around us?
Organization resilience always starts with people. That sentence is worth reading again. Overcoming adversity and crisis; finding solutions to difficult challenges; and just sometimes getting through a bad day shouldn’t be a lonely path. When we as fellow humans lighten the load of those we work with and employ, then resilience is enhanced through better decision-making, swifter resolutions, improved collaboration, and enhanced morale. Resilience isn’t simply about being tough; it’s mostly about helping each other out when we dump tomatoes on the ground.
Quote of the Week:
”An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”
~ Winston Churchill
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