Have you ever asked them to do something so obvious that it simply wasn’t possible to misunderstand? A nice, easy job. Something they couldn’t fluff — if they only thought about it for two minutes — yet they still messed it up.
Do they ever come back with completely the wrong answer?
It does my head in when they do that.
But there is something worse, far worse still…
Let me give you an example. What are the next 2 numbers in this sequence?
1, 2, 4, …
Isn’t it obvious?
Sometimes there is more than one right answer. The wrong answer isn’t always wrong.
When somebody confronts you with the wrong answer do you ask yourself who is wrong? You or them or both of you or neither? Do you listen to what they have to say?
How would you like your staff to spend their time?
Tragically we only realise that their wrong answer could just be right by questioning our own answer.
Which is hard, particularly if you — like me — are never wrong.
Author: Jonty Pearce
Published On: 7th Mar 2014 - Last modified: 13th Nov 2018 Read more about - Archived Content