It is not just what you say, but how and when you say it

Point to Ponder: "If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive." - Dale Carnegie


Fred was a young and ambitious manager. One summer day in 1985, he got an invitation to present his industry benchmarking findings to the top management of his company. He had been granted 30 precious minutes of the executive team's ears.

To the surprise of his colleagues, Fred was back in about 10 minutes. They inquired, “How did it go?”

Said Fred, ”My presentation did not go beyond the second slide. I was thrown out of the meeting room.”

“Why?” asked his colleagues.
 
“Well, I wanted to be open and direct, so I started with the first slide showing best practices from the industry and said, ‘this is the right way to do things ...’

Then, I presented the second slide showing our own company's data, and said with a firm strong voice: ‘... and this is our way of doing things.”

“I had never seen so many red faces in my life” said Fred.
 

Reflection: I have not seen Fred since then. His research and what he intended to show as best practices was good information. But instead of showing how his research would benefit the company, he started by insulting the very people he needed to approve his proposal.

“If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.”

Comments

[N]

Good sharing / reminder, better than learning the hard way!

[Unknown]

What you will put together it the beehive is the Bad boss & really sucks

[Pushpa]

Hi, I had come across FR accidentally, and I subscribed for the weekly mails. But, I never really went through the mails, and would generally delete them without even going through.Today,I saw another mail from FR and let me admit I simply love it. I have always been passionate about reading, and also about these little secrets to a better life. I have been going through all the other posts also, I believe in you and I intend incorporating these values in my life,. THanks!

[Don]

To Unknown
Are you the Frustrated Fred in the story? Seems that way. It might benefit if you read previous week's memo about Three Idiots.
Don L