What Does Helpful Look Like?

May 26, 2008

The other day Chris Brogan wrote this short and simple post about being helpful. That’s it. That was his advice. Thanks Chris.

So great, ‘be helpful’. The question for me though is “What does helpful look like?”. I wonder about it being an attitude, an approach to working with and supporting people. Perhaps helpfulness can only be dictated by the person being helped.
What if, you are already in the business of being helpful? What if your mission is to ‘Improve the lives of children and families by providing the care, knowledge, resources and skills to help them achieve their goals in life’? Isn’t that helpful enough?

Their Goals

I have had the pleasure of hiring 22 new staff members in the past 7 months. I have met with each one of them individually at the start of their time with us, for at least 45 minutes. Each time, I review our mission because it means something to me…to our organization. What I always emphasize is the part that says: “their goals in life”…we focus on their goals for themselves, not ours for them.

Who am I serving?

While our organization serves children and families, my role does not always afford me direct contact with the people we serve on a daily basis. The fact is, I serve my staff. So, what is it I can do to be more helpful to them? How do I help those who provide services to children and families?

How can I help?

My first inclination was to give a long list of all a few things that I think would be more helpful to my staff. Here’s a few things that came to mind:

• Provide more entry points for contribution to the big picture.

The fact is, I love looking at big picture stuff as much as anything. In the past year we have grown tremendously having trippled our physical size, grown our staff, and our capacity to serve. It started with some big ideas. Really though the organization benefited greatly from folks who have a gift for the detail. They were the ones to keep me grounded in reality and made the growth useful.

• Recognize the gifts and talents of others and create opportunities for them to be shared in our organization.

People’s gifts and passions extend well beyond their job descriptions. Find out what they do well and find ways to facilitate their sharing of these gifts.

• Discover where people get their motivation to do the work they do.

When you understand this motivation, you can recognize when it happens. When this happens, you get to share in the experience that gives meaning to their work and create mutual understanding of the power of your shared work.

It may be simpler than that.

Everything I have just mentioned could perhaps be summed this way: It’s about relationship. It’s about genuine, honest relationship that is valued and understood. Whether it is between parent and child, practitioner and parent, staff and supervisor, understanding how to be helpful occurs in the context of relationship. And if you really care about being helpful, you might consider asking how.

Posted in Agency, Business, Uncategorized, Work, collaboration