Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Pushing People Away

This morning I taught a course. Whenever I teach this course, I find that the classmates can usually help each other.

I use a defined exercise to help make that happen. Basically, I go around the room and have each person tell specifically what they are looking for in a great referral. I help them to become more specific.

Halfway around the room I met resistance. The answer I received was that this person didn't want to name any names in front of this group. What this person didn't realize was that basically he had shut down opportunities for anyone in the group to WANT to help.

There is more to the story, but it really doesn't matter.


The question is, "What do we each do to unknowingly to push people away from us?"

1 comment:

sarah marie said...

I can very much relate to this one, working at my dad's store tonight, it seems some people just want to complain!! That's a biggy for pushing me away, when I hear such complaints- "you don't have the right beers"- yes we order many of them in that are requested, but my goodness we have over 100 to choose from, pick a different one this time!

Or better yet, they confuse me with my sister and tell me I was wrong when I have no clue what they are talking about- gotta love that one!! Sadly tonight this all came from the same customer- some people need to learn complaining is not a way to draw people in, especially if you're trying to tell them they're wrong when it's not you they were originally talking too.