A few weeks ago, I was getting a piece of gym equipment delivered. I had received and email from the shipping company telling me the delivery would be between 1 and 5. While I was teaching a class, my phone started going off like crazy at 11:15, ringing text messages the whole nine yards. After class, I looked at my phone, thinking something must have been wrong. Nope, the delivery guy called me no less than sixteen times, repeatedly trying to tell me he was waiting for me for the delivery. I called him right back at 11:30, and he told me he was leaving and that I would have to reschedule the delivery. I tried to tell him that the delivery wasn’t even scheduled until one, but he wouldn’t listen, was extremely rude, and wouldn’t even give me his full name. I was a little hot under the collar during the whole exchange.
I called the delivery company and rescheduled the delivery for several days later.
I was sharing the experience with a client, and her response was, “It makes you wonder what he may have been going through that day that made him act like that.”
What the delivery guy may have been experiencing that day never entered my mind.
A couple of days later, I had the same delivery person deliver the equipment, and my attitude towards him changed because I thought about what he might be experiencing that day. Our exchange was pleasant, and he even helped me take the equipment into the gym.
My challenge to each of us when we have unpleasant exchanges with others is to consider what he or she might have encountered that day that may have caused them to act a certain way. I think when we take that into account, we respond differently to the other person and our encounter. When we come to the conversation with a different perspective, the entire encounter can change with a much more positive outcome.
How will you show up at the next conversation?
Your Friend,
Aaron