How many times has someone asked your view on something and once you’ve given it their mood changed or indeed the other way round? With social media being a big part of our lives its not difficult to get the views of others – sometimes welcomed sometimes not.
I met with the wonderful Claire Pedersen last week at the Women’s Organisation who is my Business Advisor aka my Challenger – and we all need a few of them in our lives. What Claire gives me is that objective, unemotional view based on facts, and I really welcome it. When we are immersed in something its not always easy to be objective and make the best choices – so thank you Claire!
I suppose the challenge comes when others want to give you their view and you don’t really want it – what do you say in that case? That said of course we can listen to the thoughts and views of others but we don’t need to take them all on board. Generally its always good to ask the people who have experience or an understanding of what you are doing to get a more informed view depending on what it is – but in some cases a completely outside view can open a door that you hadn’t even thought of!
Whatever your thoughts and views on this topic…..when you do ask for an opinion or view you need to be prepared for the answer!
One of many things that I love about what I do is that I get to ask others lots of questions and every answer gives you a greater understanding of the bigger picture. Within a business we can all be looking at the same thing but seeing it in a different way, the difference it makes when you get an understanding of everyone’s view can be phenomenal and it’s far more effective when you have an objective person asking the questions. The truth is we don’t know what people are thinking until we ask them do we, and having the right person asking those questions is key.
So over to you for your view – and yes I am ready!