"Be Kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”

                                                                                  - From the Til Vahalla Project

For those of you I coach, you may have seen me wearing my new t-shirt with the above saying on it. (Thank you, Eric Mauz, for wearing yours on one of our Zoom calls and inspiring me to order one for myself!)

If you are not familiar with the Til Valhalla Project, it is an amazing story of how founder Korey Shaffer's grief and pain turned into consolation and hope for so many. Learn more on their website here: https://tilvalhallaproject.com

My message today is simple:  Be kind. Be compassionate. Be empathetic.These are attributes of a true leader! This is easy when the other person is respectful to you...not so much when they're not.

• We get upset and take it personally if someone does not return a call
• We get upset and take it personally if someone says something rude
• We get upset and take it personally if someone is short with us
• We get upset and take it personally if someone cuts us off in traffic

         And so on…

We see only what is on the surface, and we perceive adverse behavior as a personal attack on us. Their offense causes us to go directly into defense mode. 

What if we turned it upside down and instead of getting upset and defensive, we were empathetic? What if instead of responding with a look or a word (or a gesture) to illustrate our anger, we looked at them with compassion and responded to them with kindness? 

Here's a tip:  It helps if you imagine that you have the inside scoop, and you know that they just received some devastating news or some horrible diagnosis. Look, maybe they are just rude or inconsiderate...but there is a good chance that they are fighting a battle of one kind or another. Assume they are. Act accordingly.