Before explaining the implications of being betrothed to debt, I should probably point out that this article isn't actually about financial literacy or out-of-control spending as such.
It's about what happens when we are confronted by those moments in life, be they at work or at home, that seem utterly insurmountable.
Last week, Travis wrote an article entitled Meconium Fights & Muck-Mouth Homilies.
As I finished reading the article, a sceptical voice inside my head whispered three short words..."Great in theory". I was left with a defeated feeling about my own capacity to access these questions when in the heat of the emotional moment.
The gift in this event, though, was in how it triggered an unexpected learning journey for us around the art of the difficult conversation. I'm talking about the kind of conversation that guides us through the terrain of missed expectations and disappointment without doing further damage; a conversation that preserves relationship instead of ruining it.
“I know they are underperforming but they are struggling with depression. We might just have to leave the conversation for now.”
“I can’t talk to them about performance at work at the moment because they are having marriage problems.”
Commonly, these are the comments and attitudes of leaders and managers who genuinely care about others and who, in no way, want to cause further harm to people who are already suffering.
