Blurting out un-thought-through statements at work are like this splash/blot of magenta paint. It is just there, nothing that makes real sense; it just appears there really saying nothing….random. Do you ever hear things like this at work? What I am talking about is you are doing something at work, talking to a co-working about an issue or problem in the office and all of a sudden the boss or superior comes up and starts telling you why or why not something should be happening, (as if they know what you are talking about when they really do not). Sound familiar? Well, I have to admit…I am guilty of doing this myself sometimes to my co-workers thinking I know what they are talking about and do not and jump in with my opinion of what should be done and I am totally off the mark because I really didn’t understand the situation in the first place. Then because I have misunderstood the situation, they need to take the time to explain to me what is going on and then I need to re-calculate what I said and either apologize for jumping in before I knew the true story or make up something that at least sounds good (to me, certainly not them). Doing this only makes us look bad and possibly like a micromanager trying to know everything that is going on. Not that we shouldn’t know what is going on, but there is a better way to go about finding out what is really going on. What if you hear something being said in the office that you do not think (key word is THINK) that is right. If you really did not hear all of it you could be wrong and say something that would make yourself look bad, so what if you said…..Could you explain to me what you said to that patient/customer? I am not sure if I heard you correctly. Then you will give the person a chance to tell you what really (key word REALLY) happened and then you can REALLY make a judgment on that. I cannot tell you how many times I have over-shot what was really said and made a fool out of myself by not really understanding what really was happening. I also cannot tell you how many times I have been upset by my boss doing the same thing to me. I would say it is time to learn, REALLY learn to ask before jumping to conclusions or saying things because we THINK (not really sure) we know what is going on or was said. If we just could STOP for that one second, just one second and think it through and then ASK questions that are non-threatening about what we THINK was said. We will probably find out we really did not hear correctly in the first place and by asking questions we have saved our selves from looking like and behaving like a donkey and that is a good thing. Take the few seconds…and ask…you and your staff will be glad you did.
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