How much time do we spend wishing things, places, and people weren’t as they were? I have wished Daylight Savings Time would either go away or become permanent. I have wished snowbirds would stay off of Florida roads in winter. I have wished various people, and animals, in my life were nicer, neater, quieter, smarter, thinner, earlier, safer, fairer, healthier, mellower, and saner than they were at that moment.
Come to think of it, I have wished all of those things for me, too.
Of course the difference is that I had the power to make myself many of those things, but absolutely no power to shape anyone else to my own desires.
In my younger banking days, clients would call me with questions, and I was put forth by my employer as someone ostensibly with an answer. I was the Answer Queen. In meetings, I tried to get to the question at hand as quickly as possible so I could show off (what I thought were) my brilliant answers. This left no room for the client to demonstrate their own brilliance. I missed out on getting to know what they wanted, needed, aimed for, or feared because it felt safer to stay inside my own knowledge bubble. In doing so, I was not budging from the place where I was comfortable. If they wanted to be a customer, they had to meet me where I was. Not surprisingly, some decided to pass.
After rejection, then cynicism, and some personal life lessons, I learned that it was far better, but harder, to meet people where they are. To do so, I had to accept them there, and not try to budge them anywhere else. Rather, by backing off, shutting up, asking scary (to me) questions, and seeking to understand them, I found that a new conversational space opened – one that we both could step into and feel safer. The more actively I listened, the more possibilities, opportunities, and brilliance showed up. And voila’ – sometimes, decisions and outcomes appeared that had not occurred to either one of us before.
It turns out people can in fact get nicer, neater, quieter, smarter, thinner, earlier, safer, fairer, healthier, mellower, and saner sometimes, if we are willing to step out of our own comfortable place, and meet them in theirs.
