We regularly talk to people about their circle of influence and about focusing on the things that they can actually have a significant impact upon.
Often, the conversation turns to the fact that you can’t control anyone but yourself (and for many people even that is sometimes a challenge!)
We talk about choice, about outcome focused thinking and about taking personal responsibility.
We are person A, and we get to choose what we say.
We get to choose how we take things.
We get to choose how we react to every situation we find ourselves in.
Good.
However, conversations happen between Person A and Person B and here is the eternal challenge.
As we already know, we are only at liberty to control our own responses. We cannot predict what Person B will say, or how they will react. Let’s face it, our mind reading skills and power of prediction are poor.
This situation means that if Person A, needs to have an enlightening conversation with Person B there is potential for things to get away from ideal pretty quickly, especially now, when this conversation is happening over the telephone or in a virtual meeting room.
The redeeming thing about this situation is that we are ALL Person B too.
We are all the person that someone else might, in the future, might want to have a ‘difficult’ conversation with.
And as Person B, we hold a huge responsibility.
We have it within our gift to make things easy for Person A, so life can get back on track quickly, with low drama and a good relationship still intact. We can choose to listen, set defensiveness to one side, see things from their perspective and to work with them to find a pathway through.
How are you going to be the best Person B that you can be?
