Michele L. Sullivan Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.

This Ted talk by Michele Sullivan is an inspiring story about her life growing up shorter than most people and the struggle she goes through for simple everyday tasks. Even though she persevers Michele realizes she needs help with some things like climbing stairs if there are no ramps or help with bags on an airplane. To do these tasks she needs to ask others for help. She is very grateful for all the help she gets from others and has had wonderful conversations with all of them. The last few minutes of Michele's Ted talk she talks about how asking for help is a strength, not a weakness. Michele says she would be no where without the help of her family, friends, and many strangers that helped her along the way. We will all need help some where along the way and Michele explains that it is just as important to be there for others when they are in need. Michele then says the only shoes you can walk in are your own. You may not know what struggle is going on in someones life. With Michele you can physically she that she is short and she needs help with some things, but someone else  you may not know what they are going through. I think that this  directly relates to the work place because we need to respect each other and when someone asks for some help you just be there for them because you don't know what is going on in their life. This a great Ted and I encourage all to watch.





Comments

  1. Mark BonicaMarch 26, 2017 at 12:33 PM

    Traveling right now and can't watch the talk, but have book marked it for later.

    I didn't do a good job with this early in my career. I thought if I admitted I needed help, it would look to my boss like I didn't know what I was doing. In fact, early on, I didn't know what I was doing and my boss knew I didn't know what I was doing, but I tried to pretend like I knew and never really asked for help. That led to me getting into conflicts - especially with the chief nurse - that didn't need to happen. I should have asked for more help. It took me a long time to realize that. As you progress in your career, there will be things that people will expect you to be able to handle on your own. But there will be things you are not going to be able to do, ever. Especially in the medical field. Building a network of people who you can call on is especially important. When I was a CFO, I regularly conferred with my fellow CFOs at other hospitals. Sometimes we would even be e-mailing each other during teleconferences with headquarters, with questions like "Do you have any idea what he is talking about?" when the regional CFO would be talking to us.

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  2. UnknownMay 10, 2017 at 7:58 PM

    I saw this Ted Talk earlier this year and thought it was great! Michele's airplane bathroom story is making me cringe right now just thinking about it... I think that she is in a unique position to speak about this subject as a person living with a physical disability. I wasn't sure the route she was going to take when she began this talk, but I'm glad the she went where she did with it. I tend to respect people a smidgen more when I see them asking for help. We're all only human! Thanks for sharing this talk. It's a good one!

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