Do you know people who have rigid views about just about everything? Conversations with people like this either turn into spirited debates or one-sided monosyllabic dead ends.
Even if you have a firm perspective on a given topic, when you open your mind and hear a different perspective, it can enhance and expand your thinking.
In the past few weeks, several clients shared stories of gaffes that occurred when they made important presentations. The stories had different types of audiences: one was a speech at an industry meeting, another was a board presentation, and the third was a sales presentation to a prospective client.
All these people are experienced professionals. In each case, though, too much was left to chance. Simply put, they weren’t prepared.
I had a challenging series of conversations with tech support representatives over a problem that was enormously frustrating. At one point, a supervisor kept repeating the same instruction to me despite my telling her that I didn’t understand what she was saying.
Her solution was to say it again in a louder voice.
Today is Independence Day in the United States, offering a moment to reflect on freedom and food. If you hadn’t thought of pairing those two topics together, it’s a natural given the holiday.
Any time I hear people say that they’re trapped in their lives, they’re implicitly saying that they don’t feel free. But it also infers that they are holding themselves as victims to their circumstances. Victims are not free; they are captive to their conditions.
Sometimes when you focus on improving skills to get better at your job, you neglect thinking about whether there is something that you ought to eliminate.
This is especially important as a leader, since your behavior is being observed by your employees and may be adopted as their own.