Can you imagine one of the great people you are trying to attract and hire going home and saying “Honey, I’m betting our family’s future on this jerk!”
Don’t be a jerk. The test comes when things go wrong and you get mad. Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space, you choose how to respond. If you say something nasty, people will never forget it. You can tear down what took a long time to build with one outburst.
If you are mad, shut your face and don’t speak until you get over it. Go home and go to bed. When you wake up you will have a better more productive outlook on the situation.
Be nice. It’s far better for your business.
Great reminder of something I learned a while back “trust is lost in buckets but gained in drops”.
And if you do mess up and say something dumb, a sincere apology after the dust settles—and an open conversation—can turn the whole situation into a net positive.
Sometimes we might have a customer that behaves as a jerk and sometimes we might be tempted to spread their bad behavior to those under us. It’s easy to fall into the trap of blaming those below us instead of accepting responsibility for whatever it was that ticked off the customer (sometimes it is nothing, they are just jerks). We must NOT fall into that trap. We can be the “adult” in the situation and stand up and “take it on the chin” so to speak. When we do then we can stop a vicious cycle that happens to so many people. Often it goes like this; Customer jerks Boss, Boss jerks Manager, Manager jerks Employees, Employees go home and jerk their spouse and children. One jerk turns into multiple jerks if we don’t stop it in its tracks. We should “parent” our employees just as we would our children and never be the jerk.
2 weeks ago in that space you talk of. I told my neighbor I’ll talk to you in two days right now I can’t talk to you.
Sometimes maybe wait two days. Sometimes just do something else away from that stimulation and response.
Nice one Larry