Mixed Messages: Attitude or Gratitude?
Attitude. You see it a lot lately with politicians, pastors, or parents—especially when their kids get disciplined at school against their wishes. Toss mixed messages and strong personalities into the pot, and you’ve got boiling conversation ready to blow and overflow.
Take yesterday, for example. The caller says to me, “We’ve got a group here that needs some training in copywriting. They’re all very experienced, seasoned pros. They don’t think they have anything to learn so the instructor’s going to get a lot of attitude and have to handle some strong personalities.”
I’m a little puzzled at this point. So I ask, “Oh, experienced people? Your email this morning said you wanted training on the fundamentals?”
“Right. They’re experienced and knowledgeable, but we need to train them in the fundamentals.”
“Hmmm.” She didn’t seem to be aware of any contradiction, so I probed a little deeper to see what I’d missed in the transaction so far. “Has there been a specific change that’s created the need for this training? A new service offering? Or a new product roll-out?”
“No change really. It’s just that we’re going through a lot of restructuring. People have been assigned to new departments, reporting to new bosses with new expectations and new standards. New products and services to generate copy for—that sort of thing.”
No change? I was beginning to look around for the hidden camera, wondering how my jacket color would work on TV.
The caller continued about her needs: “We want the group to learn to be more creative. To think outside the box. To write copy that’s more engaging. To draw people into what they write.”
Okay, I thought, so now we’re getting clarity. “Is there some specific event that prompted your request or this need? Maybe some brochure or flyer that didn’t work well for you?”
“Not specifically, it’s just that everybody’s doing their own thing. And we’re trying to get them to standardize what they do so that everything they write and design has the same look and feel.”
“Hmmm.” I was trying to hone in here since I had something that was not directly contradictory. “So you want them to be more creative with copy—but within your standard practices about branding such as issues of color, paper, font, and so forth.”
“Exactly!”
What can you do when you subscribe to the standard “The customer is always right” even when the customer is contradictory? Lead by asking questions. And create awareness of the ambiguities in what they’re saying by asking questions—without making them defensive.
That’s the tough part. How do you know if you’re successful? You get either attitude or gratitude.
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