All of us know at least one of these “types”, don’t we? The know-it-all, who never has time to let us complete a sentence before they start finishing it. If we have an objection, they are right on us, with how to overcome our reluctance to buy. If we are delivering information to colleagues, they are sitting around the table, interrupting us with questions or acknowledging every little detail of what we say, as though they are the only person in the room who matters.
Why do they make themselves so annoying and disruptive? Is this behavior something that you, yourself, engage in on a regular basis?
Why do you feel the need to strut your stuff? Surely everyone acknowledges your subject matter expertise. That’s why you were
invited to sit around the table in the first place.
You are supposed to collaborate, not be the be-all, end-all, bottom-line, buck-stops here, “I validate you” person.
So What? Get over yourself and whatever issue creates your need to constantly strut your stuff. You are so profoundly much better than that.
You know who you are. You are found in lots of companies, across all sorts of professional disciplines, in all continents.
You are a barrier to everyone’s growth. Quite frankly, you are a barrier to your own growth as well. So pull in your tail feathers and find out how much your colleagues have to offer to you and to each other.
Everyone, ultimately, is a customer of everyone else. This isn’t a kumbaya for let’s all join hands and be friends. It’s an edict for let’s shut up and listen to everyone’s voice around the business development table. Believe it or not, everyone has something to voice.
The last time I checked, synergy was far more powerful than your continuing to be a solo act and focus all attention on yourself.
If you can’t take the time to listen to your professional colleagues, what’s the true value of what you deliver to your customers? Because you know you do the same thing with them. It’s so much all about you that they can’t even get a word in edgewise.
Think about the type of customer relationships you might cultivate if you stopped strutting your How Great I Am stuff and, instead, started thinking along the lines of How Collaboratively Amazing We Are Together?
After all, you have internal customers as well as external ones. They have all been hired by management due to some sort of perceived value that they bring to the business equation. The strength and value you create (or don’t) by your ability to collaborate (or not) translates into the relative worth your collective output means to your end users, or customers, or patients, or colleagues.
Something you need to think about?
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