What do you recommend when it’s tough connecting to a team member?
A listener of our podcast asked us that question.
Here’s how it unfolded, with 3 unsuspecting C’s…
Cory Scheer began with a question of his own:
“How am I being benevolent to that person?”
He went on to describe his definition of benevolence as being a coiled spring of compassion, ready at a moment’s notice to launch. Through awareness, listening, and building trust.
Bronson Ko continued with a direct, one word answer:
Confront.
“A natural fear we all have to a degree is the fear of confrontation. But relationships that are healthy and rich require confrontation. We can’t tippy toe around, especially if we are in a culture built on transparency.
I loved both of their answers. Then I tossed out my own.
I too, unaware of the connection at the time, had a C word:
Curiosity.
By being curious, working to understand the experience of another, what may be going on for them that’s leading to the disconnection, is a path I’m trying to walk, with varying degrees of consistency.
Bronson interjected, “Confront with curiosity.”
Yes, that.
While coiled up with compassion.
Perhaps all those C’s will lead us towards the heart of the question.
Connection.
Being known, understood, valued, and ultimately, and mutually, finding some center to stand on.
It’s weird that it takes all those C’s to produce it, but it sure seems like it might.