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can be deceivingwhether athletic ability, political clout, or riches are concerned. However, we fail to remind ourselves of the same principle in conversation. The shop supervisor who suggests a new assembly process may pepper his or her speech with poor grammar, stammering sentences, and repetitious details but come up with many money-saving ideas. Try to pay attention to content without being distracted by delivery. |
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Tip 150: Don't reject out of hand what someone is saying solely because the words they use seem technically incorrect. |
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Many people know what they meanthey just can't say it well. For example, a prospective client called me one day to ask if I spoke on negotiation. Just before I started to tell him no and refer him to a colleague better known for "negotiation" programs, I decided to probe further. After he began to elaborate his objectives for the meeting he was planning, it became clear that he really wanted a talk on persuasion for his salespeople in the audience. They needed to be able to use both logic and emotion to consult with their own customers about their needs and then persuade them that their company was the best provider of the product or the service. Big difference. But I almost missed a profitable engagement by simply taking his term "negotiation" at first blush without investigating. |
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Tip 151: Resist the urge to nitpick. |
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"I read in the paper this morning that something like 16 banks have gone under in Texas alone this year." Response: "Yeah, I saw that. Actually, it was 18." |
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"I heard Janie resigned to go back into advertisingChicago firm, I think." Response: "She's been wanting to get back in the ad biz for years. The job was in Pittsburgh, she said." |
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The correction may be subtle or overt. The effect is the same. People feel "corrected." Well they may be, but they won't necessarily appreciate it. Avoid the temptation to nitpick about facts that don't matter. |
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Tip 152: Avoid one-up phrases. |
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These one-ups are common put-downs: "Oh, didn't you already know thatI guess I should have told you." "It may be of interest to you that . . ." "I guess you had no way of knowing, but . . ." ''As you'll soon discover . . ." |
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