Set the Tone This Week
Welcome to another Toolkit Tuesday! Every week, our goal is to give you a practical leadership tool to put in your toolkit.
So Here We Are... Thanksgiving Week...
So here we are staring at the calendar and realizing Thanksgiving week is here again. A great time to slow down but also a week when many people walk straight into situations they already know will test their patience. Politics, religion, college football, you name it. Someone is ready to poke the bear.
It is easy to show up with dread. You brace yourself. You pull back. Or you swing to the other extreme and try to overpower the room if someone hits a nerve you hoped they would leave alone.
Then I thought about something simple a mentor shared with us. In the center of most old towns was a fountain. People gathered there because it brought life. It was clean. It was refreshing. It was where friends connected. But when a fountain got polluted the town slowly died. No one wanted to be near it.
We are the same. We can be a fountain people move toward or a fountain people avoid.
And during a week filled with family, long conversations and the occasional flare up it is worth deciding what kind of presence you want to bring into the room.
The Challenge
Most of us walk into holiday gatherings with an emotional posture we never name. We either disengage to protect ourselves or try to control the room to avoid discomfort. Both approaches drain the people around us.
The real challenge is simple. What kind of fountain will you be when things get tense?
The Tool: Be a Life Giving Fountain
Picture the fountain in the middle of the town. Clean water. Calm presence. A place people gather because it feels steady and safe.
Make that your goal this week.
Show up in a way that brings peace. Let your presence cool the temperature instead of raising it. Let your words refresh instead of react.
Choose steadiness when old arguments flare up. Be the person others exhale around.
To help you remember this download the fountain image and set it as the background on your phone for the week. You will see it dozens of times. Let it reset your posture every time you look at it.
Why This Matters Now
Thanksgiving gatherings can either deepen relationships or drain them. A calm presence is contagious. When one person brings life into the room it shifts the tone for everyone.
You will never regret being the person who adds peace instead of tension.
The Result
If you choose to be a life giving fountain you make space for real connection. People open up. Conversations soften. Tension fades. You end up enjoying the week instead of surviving it.
If you choose not to, you already know what can happen. Small issues become big ones. Old patterns show up. You leave feeling worn out and frustrated.
Take Action
Download the fountain image and make it your phone background. Use it all week as a simple reminder to bring peace into every room. When something pokes at you pause and reset. Choose life.
If you want to grow your emotional intelligence and presence as a leader or parent or friend, schedule a call. We help teams and families learn practical tools that raise the level of health in every environment. Let’s talk about what that could look like for you.
Closing the Loop
Back to that town fountain. When it stayed clean the whole community thrived. When it became polluted the town slowly faded.
Your presence carries that same weight this week. Show up as the kind of fountain people want to gather around and you will make the most of the moments that matter most.
