“If you only show up when you want something, we’ll catch on.”

Source:  http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/06/the-professionals-platform.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsethsmainblog+%28Seth%27s+Blog%29

Doesn’t matter if it is at work or at home, there are gardeners and there are flowers.  Flowers type people are the people who can be described by the quote above quite often.  Flowers can often seem pretty but they can be exhausting. They can be energy drains.  Even if you have the patience of Buddha at some point you will want to choke them.

Gardeners often feel ‘duty’ to the flowers, but here is the thing…  You are depriving  a flower type person when you constantly tend to their needs.  They will never feel the need to empower themselves if you are their source of life/growth/success. Not to mention it is not a terribly good feeling when you start to wince when you see them coming.

Re-frame any thought you have that it would be unkind not to carry them along and/or let them ride in the wagon while you pull.  Instead know that you are empowering them to go out and get their own wagon.