Eve Wise arrived exhausted for her lunch appointment with Adam Smart *.

“Hi, Eve! You look beat. What’s wrong?”

Eve breathed a heavy sigh and began, “Let me tell you. It started with four messages left for me from my rep out west. The guy has been with us for five years and still cannot make simple decisions. Just listening to his stressed and depressed voice makes me cringe.

Then before I could finish my e-mail Janet comes in with her usual list of complaints. For her, every small thing is a big problem. She thinks everyone is incompetent. Granted, she is almost a perfectionist so everyone else is not good enough but I am tired of listening to her constant complaining.

For the last two hours I was stuck in the weekly forecast meeting that is utterly useless. My boss leads this meeting with no agenda, no accountability, and no follow-up.  Meetings like this drive me up a wall.

Sorry to dump on you, Adam, but thanks for asking.”

We each need to take inventory to enhance the impact we have on our important and teachable people.  At the same time reducing your exposure to draining people along with increasing the structure of your encounter with them will help protect your life from their draining behaviors


 *The names and titles are changed. The experience is based on participants in our Overcoming Overload Workshop.

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