SubscribeThe Best Advice I’ve Received
I'm about to share with you something a manager of mine told me several years back. This has stuck with me and looking back, I think it's the best advice I've ever received. Being the geek that I am, I tend to side toward being introverted. I feel like I am more outgoing than a lot of those in my field, but I'm sure no salesman. This advice has helped me step past that tendency and keep those people I have to deal with on a day to day basis happy without getting myself run over.
So, what was that advice? When I worked in retail way back in college, it was always hard for me to deal with upset customers. I mean, who likes dealing with upset people? My manager told me: "Instead of telling the customer what you can't do to help them, tell them what you CAN do to help them." At the time, it made sense. I took the advice and followed it. But now, I look back at that little phrase with amazement.
In any situation where the 3rd party (be it a customer, client, or your boss) is unhappy, telling them what you're going to do to fix it changes the tone. It's important to know that you can't fix everything. Sometimes something is so screwed up it's beyond repair. If that happens to be the case, just own up to it and let them know what you'll do to keep that from happening again. No amount of pointing fingers and blaming others is going to make you look any better. If it's your fault, them fix it and move on.
Saying what you can't do is looking backwards towards the event that caused the disturbance. It does nothing but draw attention back to that event. Saying what you can do focuses the mind on progress. Anytime someone can visualize progress, they are more satisfied. It won't make the problem go away, but it's proven for me to be a sure-fire way to get people out of my face and start making progress.