The worst evils

"The worst evils in the world aren't done by evil people. They're done by good people who don't know they're not doing good." ~ Reinhold Niebuhr

Let's think about that. There are countless examples of good people who've caused great damage to other human beings, to themselves, and to the world. Wars fit into this category. Things now thought of as "crazy" in the medical or scientific worlds, have done great damage. So much of the damage is caused by ignorant, good people.

Now, let's think about it again, but after filtering out people:

1. who we know of today, but who aren't close to us.
2. who lived before us and who we know about through history.

Who does that leave? It leaves us.

Now, since we're fallible humans, there's no way to ever rid ourselves of committing "the worst evils." They're going to happen.

What we can do is always try to think. We've got to think about our actions -- with our families, with our friends, with those at work (especially when we're leaders) -- and do our best to make thoughtful, instead of thoughtless decisions.

I think we can all agree that we don't want to commit one more of those worst evils if there's any way we can avoid it.

Before we "jump"

How many times have we KNOWN the right answer before we even knew all the facts?

How many times have we gotten upset with someone because we jumped to the result before we heard all the information?

How many times have we jumped in and tried to solve the problem before we even knew if our team member wanted our help?

How many times have we Looked Before Leaping?

If we, as leaders and bosses, are to have any credibility with our team members, we have to stop, listen, and think before we act. Nothing turns our people off more quickly than knee-jerk reactions from us.

Credible leadership is mature and thoughtful leadership. Let's take a minute to think about that.

Questions

Voltaire wrote, "Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."

People like to hear themselves talk. People like to be thought of as witty and wise. Some people project the idea that they know everything or most everything...and want to share what they know with you.

What I think about when I read Voltaire's quote is that we all have 2 ears and one mouth so we should listen twice as much as we speak.

I also think about what I was taught when I was a young man: when you encounter someone who has all the answers, walk away. Adding to it, I learned that the time I think I have all the answers, I need to realize I know nothing.

Perhaps Voltaire was talking about being a thoughtful person. Thoughtful people ask great questions, not just a lot of them. The questions they ask show they're thinking and can often make you stop and question your own thought processes or your own views of a problem. Great, thoughtful questions can cut through all the clutter and get to the meat of an issue. They add to the dialog instead of turning attention away from it like poor questions can do.

Do you ask many questions? What kind of questions do you ask? Do they add to the discussion at hand?