Forget Trying to Control People
Leaders worry themselves to death over how to get people to do what they want them to do. My book, Conversations with My Old Dog, is a series of poems about the “talks” I used to have with my aging yellow lab Lucy. The poem “Control” includes these lines:
We people spend much of our time on the illusion of control–
we order our lives and try
to order the lives of others.
However, we learn–as with our dogs–
that we may get folks to sit
but never to stay.
Here’s some advice to the people I coach. It’s difficult enough to control your own behavior; it’s a losing proposition to try to control others’. Learn to appreciate their behavior instead.
Leaders worry themselves to death over how to get people to do what they want them to do. My book, Conversations with My Old Dog, is a series of poems about the “talks” I used to have with my aging yellow lab Lucy. The poem “Control” includes these lines:
We people spend much of our time on the illusion of control–
we order our lives and try
to order the lives of others.
However, we learn–as with our dogs–
that we may get folks to sit
but never to stay.
Here’s some advice to the people I coach. It’s difficult enough to control your own behavior; it’s a losing proposition to try to control others’. Learn to appreciate their behavior instead.
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