Two frogs were playing together when suddenly they fell together into a bucket of cream. One frog quickly realized he didn’t have any way to gain his footing to get out, so shortly afterwards he accepted his fate and slipped under the surface and drowned. Horrified, the second frog watched his friend give up and die. But he was determined not to go himself without putting up a fight. He wasn’t sure of the best thing to do, so he just thrashed around, doing whatever he could to keep himself afloat. In time, he began to notice that the cream was growing thicker. He kept kicking, and after a while he discovered that the cream had turned to butter and he could easily hop out.
Here’s the thing to remember: What happens within us is at least as important as what happens to us.
We all face challenges—that’s a given, in leadership, work and in life. It’s how we choose to respond that makes all the difference. And that can be tough to figure out, especially when things are difficult. But if we don’t want to drown we have to focus on the action we can take.
Here are some helpful thoughts to help the next time you need to churn the cream into butter:
By Lolly Daskal
Source: Lollydaskal
McKinsey senior partner Mary Meaney joins IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and Unilever CHRO Leena Nair to discuss how companies can organize for the next normal.
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Leaders don’t have to agree with their team members’ ideas. But when they don’t acknowledge and respect employees’ dignity, they start to lose people.
