![\"law](\"http:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/apple-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>For every action, there is a reaction. For every behavior, there is a consequence. Sometimes, consequences are positive. Sometimes, they are negative. What if we used this as a framework for providing advice?<\/p>\nInstead of providing answers, what if we helped<\/em> people<\/em> by sharing<\/em> our insights about the consequences that may result from their choices in behaviors?<\/p>\nThis would allow people to choose which behaviors to exhibit. More importantly, it would make them responsible for the outcomes.<\/p>\n
The benefit we add as leaders is sharing wisdom and foresight to help them see the potential implications of the paths they might choose. Ultimately, they would make the choice and live with the outcome. That sounds like accountability.<\/p>\n
Offering Advice: A New Perspective<\/h3>\nHere are three examples of fostering learning:<\/h4>\n\n- Project Success.<\/strong> Instead of telling someone how to run a successful project, walk her through all of the options and help her map out the pros and cons of each.<\/li>\n
- Improving Performance.<\/strong> Instead of telling someone he needs to give more at work, explain to him that his current level of effort is eroding team trust, and that new behaviors will be needed to avoid termination. No threats. Just a clear understanding of the consequences of his choices.<\/li>\n
- Closing Sales.<\/strong> Instead of telling someone the steps he needs to take to make more sales, help him see how his current style is received by prospects and guide him to adopt a new approach to achieve better results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Concluding Thoughts<\/h3>\n
Let\u2019s apply this framework to how we give advice. As leaders, we have a tendency (and honestly, sometimes a selfish need) to be the ones with all<\/em> the answers.<\/p>\nWhen we demonstrate this behavior, the consequence is a difficulty in establishing a culture of accountability and a stifled learning environment… which really doesn\u2019t sound much like leadership at all.<\/p>\n
Newton must have been a pretty interesting guy. In addition to leadership theory and his affinity for apples, I hear he knew a thing or two about physics. I wonder who advised him? I\u2019m guessing they didn\u2019t give him a lot of answers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Images courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Every Action, There Is a Reaction At the risk of Sir Isaac Newton rolling over in his grave, this is a paraphrase that conveniently allows us to talk about behaviors and implications. For every action, there is a reaction. For every behavior, there is a consequence. Broken down into its simplest form, when we …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,9],"tags":[64,66,63,65,62],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782\/revisions\/792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"law](\"http:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/apple.jpg\")
<\/a>For every action, there is a reaction. For every behavior, there is a consequence. Sometimes, consequences are positive. Sometimes, they are negative. What if we used this as a framework for providing advice?<\/p>\n