MONDAY BYTES – November 14, 2011
I recently got a version of this email below on a listserv I belong to for the Boston Facilitators Roundtable (BFR) – a terrific group! The email, below and paraphrased, was a follow up to a recent BFR professional development session and it came from Wellesley-based consultant Charley Matera (thanks, Charley!):
Somewhere along the way years ago I came across this fireside exchange between an old Indian and a cowboy. The Indian is telling the cowboy: There are two dogs that live inside me and are always at each others throat, the good dog and the bad dog.
Cowboy asks: which one wins?
Indian answers: The one I feed the most.
Our challenge is to choose which dog we feed: the judgmental dog or the non-judgmental dog.
Extrapolating from this, Charley & Co. identified 3 consulting / coaching / advising roles. Ask yourself how you see your own role, is it about:
1. creating a path for the client to solve his own problem,
2. collaborating with the client to problem solve,
3. providing the client with a solution to his problem.
Choosing which dog to feed is about doing the first. The second and third are aptly described in Peter Block’s classic book, “Flawless Consulting.”
It’s a good reminder for all of us to consider, what is your essential job or role: your essential purpose? How do you see yourself, as providing the fish, or teaching folks how to fish?
As always, I’m very interested in your comments and feedback – what are the dogs inside you fighting over? And what do you see as your essential purpose?
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