Tip# 66: How’s the Balance in Your Emotional Bank Account?

The best way to use 128 Tips to Make You a More Effective Leader is to treat  each page like a bite-sized break in your day.

Sixty seconds is all it takes to make changes that matter.

Today, your bite-sized break comes in the form of Tip # 66: How’s the Balance in Your Emotional Bank Account

"I’ve always enjoyed Stephen Covey’s concept of the emotional bank account. For each person you know, you make deposits in the account by sharing kindnesses and keeping your commitments. You take withdrawals by being disrespectful, discourteous or untrustworthy. How are the account balances in the accounts that matter most to you?

Take some time today to make a few deposits in the accounts you care most about.”

Our actions affect the account balances others have for us… AND our actions affect the balances we maintain in our personal accounts too.

I like to think of it like this: all of us have a joint account with Karma, or good deeds or whatever word characterizes that concept best for you.

• When our positive actions make deposits in the emotional bank accounts of those around us, Karma pays dividends. (And --it just feels good!)

• When our negative actions make withdrawals from the emotional bank accounts of those around us, Karma charges income tax. (and that usually feels bad – maybe not right away, but eventually)

Here’s the tricky part -- although we do our part to make deposits:

Making deposits for the sole purpose of soliciting your Karmic return….? Risky!

Counting on your Karmic return to be punctual? Also risky.

So why deposit? Because we all need kindnesses and we all need people we can count upon to keep their commitments. Whether you believe in Karma or not, deposits enhance our lives and the lives of those around us.

Make your deposit today.