We have been talking about pillars of character for the past month. We have talked about trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and fairness up to this point. Today we will discuss one of my favorite pillars, which is caring. When I think of those around me who are caring I think of different ways they behave and respond to peoples needs. Helping people is one of the main signs of a person who is caring. The other three signs are being kind, compassionate, and forgiving others. Don’t get this confused with letting people walk all over you. Do not let those you care for take advantage of you.
Helping others should be a key focus in business. Helping comes in so many different forms that it may be just a natural way of life for some. There are some common ideas behind helping others such as providing a service or customer service, selling a resource someone may need, or even going above and beyond to provide assistance for an individual. Sometimes we can help others without them even knowing about it. That only comes from the most honorable of people. Try to be one of those.
We should also be kind and compassionate to others as well. Be an encouragement to those around you. In the workplace their may be many people who are not feeling confident in their work. Being kind is asking what you can do to assist and being of service to them in different ways. Find the areas that they excel in and let them know how well of a job they do. Some people try to point to all the negative a person has in their life. You can be the person who helps bring out the positives. Give some accurate compliments and tell them to keep up the good work. Make sure you are honest and not just trying to make them feel good by exaggerating their quality of work. If you have to provide criticism to a person make sure it is sandwiched between two compliments. Structure it like this:
Compliment- State Concerning Issue- Second Compliment
This is a great way to show kindness even in a tough situation.
The last part of caring is showing forgiveness. When others do you wrong and ask for forgiveness with an apologetic heart, be caring enough to forgive them. I understand that not everyone has a forgiving heart. For some of us it is harder to do. Caring for others is something that we can practice in order to find progress. Sometimes we need our hearts softened in order to truly care for others. This is an area where we should ask God to search our hearts and take out any wrongdoings, then we can be prepared to transform into a more caring person.
Thanks for reading this weeks Business with Bordeaux blog. For more on these topic you can visit the Business with Bordeaux Podcast over on SOUNDCLOUD.
Thanks and God Bless
