WordFood

WordFood - how we feed or starve our realtionships

- Julia Hubbel

Julia’s ability to get this group of type-A executives to engage in true networking was incredible. She is truly skilled at motivating the group to engage and interact with each other, and her openness and honesty really come through.

— Shelley Stewart, Jr.,
Senior Vice President of Operational Excellence and Chief Procurement Officer, Tyco

June 13, 2012

WordFood Starvation Diet

Have you ever had someone say to you, “Talk to the hand?”

Has your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse or coworker ever turned their back on you and refused to talk for an hour, day or even weeks as punishment for something that perhaps you may not realize you’ve done?

If this has happened to you, you’ve been put on what I call in the WordFood vernacular the Starvation Diet. No matter what you do, somebody’s not responding to you. You get the cold shoulder. No eye contact. No emails, tweets, phone calls. The silence is hurting you- possibly both of you, and if this is happening at the office, productivity may be going down if it’s a critical work relationship.

Someone is hurt here, and as time goes on, the chances are both of you feel hurt and angry. Your egos get involved and tend to want to be right. It gets harder to solve the problem the longer it goes on.

At some point, someone has to offer the olive branch. Bury the hatchet. It’s important to realize that others may be affected by this Starvation Diet: people in your family, community members, others at work. Consider the importance of letting go of your attachment to being right about whatever happened or didn’t happen, and the value of the relationship.

One of the best ways to bridge the gap is simply to apologize whether or not the problem was yours to begin with. Acknowledge your part of the issue. Look at the larger picture and what’s at stake, and offer to move beyond this and work things out. Suggest a way to proceed.

The offer of an apology is often the first step towards mending a broken relationship. Gently inquire about what’s wrong. Be gracious, courteous, caring. Show your appreciation for their feelings. Make no assumptions for what’s going on inside them, for we never really know. All we can do is offer our understanding and empathy.

When we are fed a Starvation Diet, we are often dealing with hurt or anger, possibly with fear. It’s up to us to make the first step. Offer a safe place for the other person to feel validated and a way forward, and see if you can start talking again. A little time, caring and compassion go a long way.

May 21, 2012

Harmful WordFood

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , — Julia Hubbel @ 9:19 am

Do you have a part of you that likes to gossip? Many of us do. This negative part of us is also secretly fun- although invariably at others’ expense. But has it ever come back to bite you?
Let’s say you have a friend who is treating you badly, or so you think. You go around to all your friends and complain bitterly. You tell your story with yourself as the victim (as we all tend to do). Your friends take up your cause because they love you. Over time they form a mini “army” of haters against this person and lobby you to leave. Yet over time, you realize that perhaps you were wrong. You learn more. And realize that this person was pretty great after all. Now you have this army of haters that you now have to turn around. They are going to wonder what’s the matter with your judgement when you now want to be with such a horrible person.
You’ve got a responsibility now to clean up your act, and it’s with all your friends. With each of them you need to let them know you’ve been a gossip and that you badmouthed another person unfairly. That it wasn’t fair to that person, nor was it fair to your friend to engage them in such an ugly conversation. And from now on if they hear this kind of thing coming from you to call you out on it. Ask for their help. By doing this, you’re reading your unattractive gossipy part the riot act. By enlisting your loving friends in keeping you in line, you’re cleaning up your WordFood and you’re taking responsibility.
Have you created challenges with harmful WordFood? Engage your inner circle to keep your words supportive and uplifting. Keep gossip out of your life, and leave everyone around you feeling nourished and encouraged.

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