Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2013-02-15) from his book, Be A People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships (p. 166). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. ( Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) But it is so easy for us to look down on people isn’t it? John gives a great illustration of this principle.   He says, “The business manager at our church placed his house on the market. One Saturday he and his wife posted signs all over the neighborhood announcing an open house. As they prepared for the day, Ken told his wife, Mary Lynn, ‘We’re going to have all kinds of people come in and out of the house today, most with absolutely no resources or intention of buying. But we’re going to treat them all the same— as if they were our guests.’ Sure enough, they had dozens of people come through just to look. One young couple in their early twenties asked to see the house. They announced that they were newly married, she had no job, a...

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2013-02-15) from his book, Be A People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships (p. 162). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. ( Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Who in your life has encouraged you?   It made a difference didn’t it? John shares, “The secret of Andrew Carnegie’s genius for developing others was his ability to encourage good qualities while holding faultfinding to a minimum.” He also says, “I have yet to find the person, whatever his or her station in life, who did not perform better under a spirit of approval than under criticism. There are enough critics in the world; what we need are more cheerleaders!” Let me give you some words of encouragement from a poem that John shared: “People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered— love them anyway! If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives— do good anyway! If you are successful, you...

A thought by John C. Maxwell (2013-02-15) from his book, Be A People Person: Effective Leadership Through Effective Relationships (p. 157). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition. ( Click on the title of the book to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) There will be times that we need to confront as a parent, as a boss or as a friend. There are also times that you and I need to be confronted.   John gives some good thoughts on this.   John says, “Always give confrontation the ‘sandwich treatment.’ Sandwich the criticism between praise at the beginning and encouragement at the end. To leave a discouraged person without hope is cruel and vindictive. Goethe, the German poet, said, ‘Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.’” That is very good. John then says, “In my effort to simplify things as much as possible, I have come up with one-word descriptions of the various ways people will respond to confrontat...