Hey, Hey, A:R Nation!
I hope you're doing well!
As summer is winding down (at the time of this recording), I hope that you're enjoying it as much as I've been!
With the change in season (as well as NYC trying to resume more and more operations after COVID shutdown), my law office phone has been ringing more and more.
Sure, most business owners would say that a ringing phone is music to their ears.
For me, that's not a hard truth.
I'll no longer work with people that have to have everything their way, that don't respect my boundaries, people that are limited in their thinking.
It's some harsh commentary, but it's been evidencing itself in quite a few of the phone calls I've received in the past couple of weeks.
These potential leads have contacted my office hoping to get some "questions" answered, but I've come to the conclusion that they just want someone to tell them what they WANT to hear, and not what they NEED to hear.
What I mean by that is these callers go into their conversation with me with preconceived judgments and expectations.
For me, that's not a conversation because there's no room for me to share my thoughts and ideas.
When a party to a "conversation" will only accept what they want to hear, that's dictating the dialogue.
Many of these clients called with "questions," but when my answers didn't align with their preconceived decisions and judgments, their response invariably was, "so there's nothing I can do."
Those words never came out of my mouth.
Yet because the caller's questions was framed by a preconceived outcome of what they wanted to hear, my responses somehow equaled "there's nothing I can do," although there's plenty that they could do.
This reminded me of an argument a good friend and I got into years ago over (of all things) an iPad stand.
For me, looking at these conversations helps me to realize that, when engaging in a conversation, I MUST leave room for the other parties to be able to freely share their thoughts and ideas.
As a listener, I can try harder to get the person I'm speaking with to see that other, different perspectives exist.
Hey, Hey, A:R Nation!
I hope you're doing well!
As summer is winding down (at the time of this recording), I hope that you're enjoying it as much as I've been!
With the change in season (as well as NYC trying to resume more and more operations after COVID shutdown), my law office phone has been ringing more and more.
Sure, most business owners would say that a ringing phone is music to their ears.
For me, that's not a hard truth.
I'll no longer work with people that have to have everything their way, that don't respect my boundaries, people that are limited in their thinking.
It's some harsh commentary, but it's been evidencing itself in quite a few of the phone calls I've received in the past couple of weeks.
These potential leads have contacted my office hoping to get some "questions" answered, but I've come to the conclusion that they just want someone to tell them what they WANT to hear, and not what they NEED to hear.
What I mean by that is these callers go into their conversation with me with preconceived judgments and expectations.
For me, that's not a conversation because there's no room for me to share my thoughts and ideas.
When a party to a "conversation" will only accept what they want to hear, that's dictating the dialogue.
Many of these clients called with "questions," but when my answers didn't align with their preconceived decisions and judgments, their response invariably was, "so there's nothing I can do."
Those words never came out of my mouth.
Yet because the caller's questions was framed by a preconceived outcome of what they wanted to hear, my responses somehow equaled "there's nothing I can do," although there's plenty that they could do.
This reminded me of an argument a good friend and I got into years ago over (of all things) an iPad stand.
For me, looking at these conversations helps me to realize that, when engaging in a conversation, I MUST leave room for the other parties to be able to freely share their thoughts and ideas.
As a listener, I can try harder to get the person I'm speaking with to see that other, different perspectives exist.
