It is a difficult task, O citizens, to make speeches to the belly, which has no ears.
— Plutarch
LEADERSHIP
WHAT THIS MEANS
Reasoning does not work on need. Someone hungry, exhausted or frightened will not be argued into patience, and eloquence aimed at that state is wasted breath however good the argument. The physical fact has to be dealt with before the conversation can happen.
When a discussion is going badly, check the conditions before you check the logic. Feed people, let them sleep, deal with the immediate insecurity first. Apply it to yourself as well, since your own worst decisions are probably clustered at particular hours.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Who needs practical help rather than another good argument from you?
MORE IN LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE
- It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man’s real character than power and…
- Moral good is a practical stimulus; it is no sooner seen than it inspires an impulse to practise.
- The general himself ought to be such a one as can at the same time see both forward and backward.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.