Issue link: http://digital.corporatepress.com/i/416289
enabling leadership Who Are These People? By Joe Whitefield H ere are two questions worthy of your consideration: 1) are you engaged in any profes- sional or personal relationships that are frustrating or challenging? 2) If so, do you view the people in these relation- ships as objects or people? Don't answer yet; just think about it. I was confronted with these questions recently as part of a leadership session at APPA's Senior Facilities Officer Summit. The session was based on the book Lead- ership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute. My initial response was that of course I have some challenging relation- ships, and that I think of all people as people, not objects. However, the more I learned about the second question, the less confident I became of my answer. Before you answer for yourself, let's explore the topic a little. PEOPLE AS OBJECTS Chairs are objects. They have many uses. You can sit on them, sometimes stand on them (not advised), and so on. In each case the chair serves a specific purpose or need that we may have. Basically they can be tools. In some cases chairs can also be obstacles if they are setting in our way, impeding our movement in a space. Finally they can simply be irrelevant—present, but neither useful nor specifically in the way. To think of a person as an object is simply to think of him or her as either a tool (to be used to meet an objec- tive of yours), an obstacle (impeding the accomplishment of an objective of yours), or irrelevant. The book refers to thinking of people this way as "being in the box." PEOPLE AS PEOPLE People are people. They have needs, desires, schedules, objectives, and agendas. Seeing others as people basi- cally means that we recognize they are responding to the situations and motiva- tions in their lives just as we do. This is being "out of the box." Using this perspective is profoundly important—as challenging as it may be with certain people. So ask yourself; do others count as much as you count? Think of the person on the road, by- passing the patient drivers, who wants to cut in front of you just as his lane ends. How do you view that driver? As a per- son or object? He is certainly impeding your progress. Whether you let him in or not, he is still a person who is trying to get somewhere. The fact that you are on the same road, going the same direc- 36 | november/december 2014 | Facilities Manager