Listen Before Offering Advice to Others

The best time to give advice is when you are asked for it and paid really well for it. Otherwise… press pause, lean back, be quiet and listen. 🛑 Over and over again, when I am tired or unconscious and not mindful, I give unsolicited advice to people who double down their defenses. 😡 Then, they often become aggressive towards me. 😣 Has this happened to you? It hurts, and yet aggressive and passive aggressive behavior is a common pathway of the disempowered. I have learned and improved, and I credit myself. Yet, I must also admit that I often want people to calm down for selfish reasons: so that I can feel better. ❤️🩹 One of my students told me about a manager who had a stuffed duck in the corner of his office. Every time an employee would come into his office with a problem, he’d say, “OK , we can talk, but you need to talk to the duck first.“ Many times, people figured out their problems with the duck. Whaaaat? 😳 Yes. When human brains talk through their problems, the verbal processing helps them solve their own problems and rely less on you. This is why we love AI soundboarding! 😍 Leaders! Let people explain. Don’t try to solve so fast… unless you are explicitly being asked and paid very well to do that! 🤣🤓 Have fun trying to understand other unique bird perspectives. How will this duck solve this problem? 🤔 Many times, the answer is just a bit of quacking. 🙏 🦆