I was reading an article in the Houston Business Journal “Mistakes happen: The skill is in knowing how to limit the damage” by Maura Schreier-Fleming. She states that, after receiving an email that contained mistakes, the company sent out another email stating “…we are taking appropriate action so this does not happen again.”

What sort of ‘appropriate action’ are they taking that they did not want to divulge? Fifty lashes with a wet noodle to the person that approved the email? Tar and feathering the person? or investigating their processes to include another check before emails are sent?

In a related incident, I was in Orlando attending the NBAA convention. I fed-ex’ed a package on October 7. The ’sender’ field had my name, company name, post office box and my FedEx shipper number. The ‘to’ field had my name, company name and my home physical address, along with my phone number.

To make a long story short, I received my package on Thursday, October 23! According to Frank in the FedEx Phoenix CAT, when my package arrived here in Houston, someone decided not to put it on the truck and noted “not attempted”.

I told Mr. Frank that I hope “appropriate action was taken against the person that erred. Not meaning they should be punished or written up …”. I simply wanted them to investigate what happened so the next person would not receive their package two weeks late.

I wanted to be clear in my intentions, remembering

It’s not what I said, it’s what they think they heard

Share with me your experiences in what you said and what the other person actually heard.

With the basketball season not yet beginning, and football season just getting underway, these sports provide us with two separate team perspectives.

In football teams, there really is no ’superstar’.  I know, I know, a team can’t make it to the Super Bowl unless they have an excellent quarterback.  What type of team would you have if you had a stellar quarterback, and mediocre tight ends, running backs and wide receivers?  I don’t think you’d see that team in the Big Game.

In basketball, you can indeed have star players.  Just think of Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul Jabar or Shaquille O’Neal.  These players can be ‘the team’ in themselves.  Do you know any other players on the same teams as these three?  Possibly not.  Probably not.

The quarterback in football calls the plays and everyone knows what and when they are supposed to do.  Think of the huddle.  Everyone on the football team needs to be aware of the plays. Everyone has to be in synchronization.  Everyone has to understand.  There must be no mis-understandings, no missed plays.

Not so with the basketball team.

Communication … the key to high performing teams.

It isn’t what you said, it’s what they think they heard.

Those are dreaded words – both to hear and to say. What exactly is meant by that question?

I am an adjunct faculty member for Mountain State University’s School of Leadership and Professional Development, facilitating their Organizational Leadership Undergrad courses. I recently received a new class; these people have been together for nine months and I am the ‘new kid on the block’.

I spoke with each one of them and my first question was “Tell me about yourself”. The responses varied from strictly business to a family history. The way they answered this simple question told me bundles about the person. How you ask? I was able to discern if they gravitated more towards the personable side, willing to open up and share part of their lives that would not otherwise be exposed. Those that stuck with their position and number of years with the company unconsciously shared with me that ours was more of a professional relationship.

We tell one another what we value and how to communicate with us. Unfortunately, we are not aware of these signals. As a result ….

It isn’t what we say, it’s what they think they heard.

Training and/or facilitating classes is a great way to get different perspectives of sometimes obvious decisions. I have been fortunate in the past two weeks to give a three-day three- college-credit course, a one-day seminar on Goal Setting and Performance Evaluations and a three-day leadership course for new supervisors.

I was presented with a situation I simply shook my head at: City Council was purposely blocking incoming revenue! They are choosing not to expand their small airport.  This airport can be expanded to attract business and general aviation aircraft, products and services. This expansion, while bringing in revenue, will also bring in more buildings and more people. Perhaps Council doesn’t want strangers in their town? Perhaps they don’t believe they could find use for the additional revenue. Perhaps they simply don’t like change.

I asked for the rationale behind this decision [or non-decision] … the response was a shrugging of the shoulders and “I don’t know .. they won’t say”. Which leads us to draw our own conclusions. For better or worse.

It’s not what they said, it’s what we think we heard.

I attended NBAA’s annual convention last week. It is a huge event, nearly over-whelming, with a million square feet of exhibit space. I enjoy this event, as it gives me an opportunity to see clients, prospects, colleagues and friends.

As I was eating in a crowded restaurant, I overheard someone talking about “holiday inn customer service”. It brought up vivid images of my Holiday Inn visits many years ago. It was not a pleasant experience; in fact I can still recall the musty odor of the lobby. More recently I did stay at a Holiday Inn and it was a pleasantly average experience.

Did she mean stuffy, musty customer service, or did she mean pleasantly average customer service?

It wasn’t what she said, it’s what I thought I heard.