I had a discussion today with a colleague about helping someone who needs it.  For me, the points we bantered about apply whether personal or business focused.

Perception is Reality

It is critical to remember that your reality is based on the way you perceive things and caution must be applied to assumptions about whether help is needed or not.

Trying to assist when assistance is neither desired nor maybe considered required can lead to a whole host of issues.

A key skill to practice from your emotional intelligence (EQ) tool bag is self awareness.  Be aware whether the desire to help is potentially really for you as much as for the target who you are offering support to.   This is a key underlying factor it is really important to have a solid grasp of – that is why are you offering to help.

Receptivity

Most important is to check for receptivity.  Typically helping people who don’t want to be helped requires a battering ram  approach (exaggeration) or careful planning and manipulation.

Obviously the greatest success comes when help is requested rather than offered – although both approaches can work the latter usually requires a little more finesse, sensitivity and ample use of humor (always a good way to grease receptivity).

Why Help and When?

For  the most chance of achieving positive results from the assistance select opportunities where it is needed.

Humans (like most animals) have great instincts and gratuitous offers for help are usually smelt out a mile away.  This results in passive aggressive behavior at best and pure aggressive behavior at worse.

Please be the good Samaritan, this is a basic foundation of high performing cultures (social or business); but exercise with care to achieve the best results.