Do you ever find yourself pointing to problems more than solutions? At work, are your responding to what happens or are your regulating what takes place? On your team, do you measure the climate or do you find opportunities to adjust to a new level? These are questions to see if you are an expert thermometer or helpful thermostat.

An expert thermometer is a passive attendee that measures and reflects the climate around itself. When the climate shifts, there will be a response in the thermometer but this response is a direct reflection of the surroundings. An expert thermometer can walk into a room and see genuine issues that need to be addressed but will often talk about these issues rather than fixing them.

A helpful thermostat is an active participate that reacts to and regulates the climate around itself. When the climate shifts, the thermostat responds and then will adjust the surrounding to an appropriate level. A helpful thermostat can walk into a room and see genuine issues that need to be addressed and will work hard to make the needed changes to correct the issue.

It is important to understand the culture you find yourself in but the most successful people challenge the culture to a higher standard. It’s not enough to just read the room, you must own the issue and act on what needs to be changed. Both the thermometer and thermostat start with the same perspective but the bottom line difference is where one simply reads the room the other does what’s necessary to make things right.

So how do you compare? Have you found that people and situations determine your temperature? Do you focus on what’s wrong around you, or do you make changes and influence the climate? Will you be influenced or will you make the change?

James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Today, break through the monotony and take your first steps to becoming a helpful thermostat.