A politician recently said “Americans have a right to expect success.”
Now I agree with this concept; what I disagree with is their definition of ‘success’. Even though ‘success’ is not one of those ambiguous words we discuss in my communications seminars, people’s definition of ‘success’, much like their definition of ‘always’, ‘soon’, ‘sometimes’ and the like, can be drastically different.
Do you use words that can have a different meaning than the one you intended? Are you talking with your listener in mind — with their values, their perspective and their experience? Or are you thrusting your own ideals and opinions on the other person?
It’s not what you said … it’s what they think they heard!
