Is your instinct to feel threatened or to assume best intentions?
I read an email from a client. I thought he was angry.
After I listened to the voice message a few days ago from a copywriter, she sounds annoyed.
As I left the meeting last Thursday with some colleagues, their body language made me feel like they were troubled by something but didn’t express it.
And then I remember what my friend Anne Robie used to say. She managed the human resource department at a Nomacorc, where I worked for almost eight years.
Anne’s favorite advice and words of wisdom was, to assume best intentions.
Assume Best Intentions
So, I reread the email, listened again to the voice message, and thought about the interaction at the meeting, and realized that if I assume best intentions, nothing was wrong. Perhaps they were rushed because they had a lot on their plate. Possibly, they had stuff going on in their personal life that I didn’t know about that made them tense and curt. Since we worked with people from different countries, you may be missing a cultural signal and misinterpreting their intention.
Practicing this notion of assuming best intentions is a powerful tool to help you avoid reading into situations. Not everyone crafts an email with care, and the pace of work often find people darting back and forth among a myriad of activities.
Next time you have one of these types of situations where you feel hurt, upset, or worried – channel the words of my friend Anne.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com The conversation is free, and we can explore working together.
Photo by Radu Florin on Unsplash
