Sound Judgement

What are the drawbacks for us and other when we judge?

Judgement prevents us from gaining and maintaining safe relationships with other people. We miss opportunities to connect and to grow within ourselves. Judgement can impact us as family members, as employees or employers, as entrepreneurs and as a valuable member of any community.

Examples from an early childhood advocate and passionate entrepreneur:

• Staff judging parents’ deficits, for example- a parent ‘forgets’ to be at an important event being held at the school and a staff member states, ‘I can’t believe this parent forgot her child’s……’.
• Parents judging other parents and parenting styles.
• Parents judging the teaching strategies.
• Staff judging the behaviours of children within the classroom.

So, as you can see from the above examples, it highlights the importance of understanding this topic on a wider scale.
Asking a simple question like “why am I triggered by this situation or behaviour?” can be the difference in developing and maintaining relationships or losing them!

‍

Process for developing judgement (the true definition of judgement)…

1. Assessing the ‘situation or behaviour’ from all perspectives (yours and theirs)- this requires you to be truly present and honest.
2. Become aware of the impact your actions could take “If I am to say or do this right now, what would be the impact for us?”.
3. Apply compassion to the situation by asking yourself, “how would I feel if I were on the receiving end of the judgment?” (being the judged)
4. Taking the right action- using verbal and non-verbal language to communicate compassion and to find a long-term solution.

‍