How much help we get when we ask vs. when we don’t.

I believe the notion of asking for help is often underrated in modern society due to various misconceptions. Just because you seek help doesn’t mean you are weak or incompetent. But most certainly, it reveals your open-mindedness, curiosity to learn, and readiness to accept other people’s ideas. Here are a few tips that I always follow when I want to ask for help:

— Make sure you have spent a decent amount of time trying to figure out the problem on your own before seeking help from someone else.

— Regardless of the size, it’s always beneficial to follow the divide-and-conquer approach, which breaks the problem into sub-problems and addresses them one at a time.

— Be specific about where exactly you need help or the exact challenge you are facing, and write it down somewhere until you can simply explain it in less than a few minutes. If you think you need a sketch or a diagram, go for it.

— Respect the other person’s time and have an idea of how much time you are looking for.

— Be confident and clearly communicate that you are seeking help without beating around the bush. For example, refer to the following template:

“Hi John, I’m working on [YOUR TASK], and I need some help on [PROBLEM AREA]. I’m looking for [TIME NEEDED] of your time within the [TIME FRAME], and can you let me know the best time that works for you?”

Asking for help is a two-way street. On one side, you learn how to think outside the box and gain more knowledge, and on the other side, you help the other person improve their knowledge and reveal the gaps. We gain the most by giving!

Illustration credit: Linesbyloes — Visual thinking

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.