Your attitude is one of the most powerful tools in your professional arsenal. How you choose to interact with people will ultimately govern how well you can do your job. And there are two things you control there: the circle of people with whom you interact, and how you talk (write, etc) to them.
I don’t care how good you are at programming, finding bugs, whatever. If you’re rude, or if you speak poorly to people who don’t understand your… quirks…. you will wind up being shunted to the side. No one wants to work with someone who makes them feel beat down all the time, or someone who they simply can’t understand, or someone whose reaction to every issue is to start wailing about the end of the world.
[via Abakas]
I think we should all work on this. I deal with irate “customers” daily, and they objectify their problem onto me, and my role at my firm. But–what has been getting me through a most troubling day–is the old adage: “kill them with kindness.” And with that, I forget that they are personally attacking me, and are just unable to deal with their own frustration and emotion. It’s a simple change of thought on my part, and oh so helpful….for what it’s worth.
Comments on this entry are closed.