Last week I went to a mastermind where, among many things, the speaker mentioned how entrepreneurs tend to go on about how much effort they put into a product instead of what the client wants. The experience made me reflect on how to talk about effort effectively?
I heard a potent analogy of buying a water bottle. Think about how much work has to go in to make the purchase possible: water source, bottling facility, distribution network, checkout software, cashier recruitment on and on it goes. However, the person buying the water doesn’t care much about that. They buy the water for the convenience, not the story of how much effort multiple people went through to make the purchase possible.
The water bottle analogy is also a great representation of our personal and professional relationships. We expect people to notice our work, and it’s very disappointing when the other person doesn’t come across as they care.
How to talk about effort effectively then? What’s the solution. Is it to make the other person care or give up the expectation altogether?
The answer is to understand the context. When the time is tight, we show respect by doing our best to give concise information. However, to make the relationships grow, we must invest the time to learn about how much effort people around us put in. Otherwise, we’ll miss out on opportunities to make others feel special about what is special to them.
How often are your efforts acknowledged? How can you do a better job of recognizing the efforts of people around you?
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