Consciousness, Character, Ego and Balance

A simple communication can go a long way.

My new webmaster emailed to tell me he would be out of the office for the last two days of the week and wondered if I needed help with anything before he left.

There is so much involved in implementing a new site, that he knew I was likely to need him.

Vendors and consultants often disappear in the middle of projects without warning, so I don’t know if I will get help from them or need to find other resources. Lack of follow-through and consistency are common barriers to effective communication. In fact, it’s so common that when I told a friend what Al had done, he marveled. It’s the kind of quality customer service you would hope would be customary, but isn’t.

In fact, I didn’t have any pressing questions, but the email told me he’s on my team. It probably took him 30 seconds to write the email, and it resulted in not only my delight, but my kudos. 

 

Why were you late? Why didn’t you get back to your caller? Why didn’t you go home for Christmas? It’s tempting to look for excuses. It’s tempting to find a believable story or twist of the facts that will allow you to “get away” with something. But, of course we never really “get away” with anything. People usually can smell an excuse, and that kind of pretense undermines trust. 

 

The irony is, often we look for excuses when we have very valid reasons for our choices. You may have been late because you were enjoying watching the sun set and you made a choice. You may not have returned a call because you needed to focus to get a project done and were afraid if you returned the call, you’d get so involved in the conversation you’d lose your focus. You may not have gone home for Christmas because you’d rather see your family at a less hectic time.

There really are no good excuses, but there are really good reasons. There are some bad reasons, too, but hey – don’t decide a reason isn’t good enough because someone else might not like your choice. They weren’t there! They didn’t see how really special that sunset was. You were, and you did, and you made a choice. Own your choices. 

Character-based Communicators are honest. That’s part of why people trust what they say. And that’s part of why they are so effective. 

Why don’t you SpeakStrong? Could you just be lazy?

 What? You?

The first step in The SpeakStrong Method is to seek significance. To find significance you need to stop doing what you’re doing and see what is as is.

And for some of us, that means discovering a little laziness. 

Since I use myself as a laboratory, I’ll share some of my own discoveries. 

…

Speaking Strong isn’t for the lazyRead More »