Reciprocity is the idea that you help a friend and, in turn, the friend helps you, but bigger than that, it also means paying it forward to help others. Hear from Wayne Baker, the Faculty Director of the Center for Positive Organizations and the Robert P. Thome Professor of Business and Professor of Sociology, how this can help us as a community. Plus, he shares why you should be asking for help.

Your practice: Ask for help

Asking for help can be hard, but we’ve just seen how powerful it can be once we do. Think about your work, your life at home, and your other social connections. Consider a time you were overwhelmed or confused, but stuck it out on your own.

Now, envision what help you could have asked for and from whom. Get detailed, what words would you say? Would you call or text? What specifically did you need? It might be advice or feedback, additional information, or to have some work taken off your plate. Now, make a mental goal for this week to ask for help or information just once. Then try for twice the next week. Keep going and see what happens in your life.

Wayne shared evidence about how asking for help feels hard to do, but actually makes us seem competent. How did his points make you feel about the ways you do, or usually don’t, ask for help in your own life? Do you have any strategies or ideas for how to make asking for help part of your habits?