Posts Tagged ‘CJ McClanahan’

We all have a lens through which we see the world.  This lens was developed over time and is heavily influenced by our environment. If you grew up in a wealthy upper class neighborhood you fully expect that every kid should have a car when they turn 16, go on multiple vacations year and attend the best college.

On the other hand, if you were raised in a lower class environment you may have never been on an airplane, struggle to find bus fare each day and only know a handful of people who’ve graduated from high school.

The communication problem we all struggle with is that we expect everyone to see life through our paradigm. This is rarely the case.  Every time you get into an argument and you ask yourself, “How can they possibly think that way?” you are suffering from this challenge.

The next time you’re preparing for a conversation with a prospect, employee, coworker or your spouse I suggest that you carefully consider their perspective before you formulate your argument.

You can win the argument from your perspective and seem like a complete idiot to the person sitting across the table.

As Dr. Covey points out, “seek first to understand”.

CJ McClanahan is the Founder of reachmore. For more resources on business leadership, please visit reachmore’s seminars.