This year’s Australian Lamb campaign features “The Comments Section” and highlights that “the comments section is getting toxic.”
The advertisement (approximately 3 minutes) can be found here and focuses on how easy it is to be a key board warrior who causes conflict; who gets caught up in the moment and responds negatively; who is confused by what is real or not. It also offers the solution of uniting people by bringing them together in-person (over a lamb cutlet).
In Dare To Lead, we explore The Arena which, amongst other sections, has the cheap seats (referred to as the comments section in the ad). It’s from this section of the arena that we hear the toxic judgments and criticisms, causing disharmony, tensions and uncertainty.
Unfortunately, we tend to pay too much attention to these seats and we don’t focus on the most important seats of the arena which are the seats of empathy and self-compassion.
Who sits in your empathy seats? We don’t need a multitude of people in the empathy seats – just one or two people who know our values and support us in behaving in ways that are congruent with our values. What do the people in your empathy seats do and say that supports you? Is there anything more you can ask them to do or say?
The seat of self-compassion, as you’ve guessed is for us, reminding us to show ourselves support and kindness. If we don’t show ourselves support, we can’t expect it from others. How often do you sit in your seat of self-compassion? What do you do and say to yourself as an act of self-compassion?
Finally, circling back to the solution offered in the ad for uniting people, in your workplace, what solution do you have for bringing people together?
Leading with courage 