People Skills: How to Burst Every Assumption | #PeopleSkills
by Kate Nasser | 3 Comments »
People Skills: Simple Way to Burst Every Assumption
Assumptions — perspectives and opinions that we accept as facts — are a double edge sword.
- They are beneficial to kick start exploration and learning. They form the basis of a hypothesis for us to test out.
- They are powerfully destructive when we leave them untested.
“Assumptions are the termites of relationships.” ~Henry Winkler
People Skills: Bursting Every Assumption
Untested assumptions become a hidden virus which ruins decisions, relationships, and organizations.
There is one simple question to burst an assumption’s malicious power. Ask yourself …
Am I thinking “of course”?
If the answer is yes, you’ve given the assumption infinite power.
Stop.
Burst it with great questions.
People Skills: Power Over Assumptions
Great people skills can power over prejudice and assumptions by discovering the truth about others. They replace bias with reality.
Great people skills remove the fear of strangers with the joy of connection.
Great people skills allow leaders to discover the talents of employees through interaction. This is far better that the assumptions they make from the details on resumes.
Great people skills enable teams to quickly form and question assumptions without insult. They conquer challenges together.
Great people skills fuel continuous learning. Interacting reveals whether assumptions are true or not. It’s hard to live in denial when the truth is shaking your hand.
Instead of assuming that everyone thinks the same,
Replace every “of course” with open-ended questions and discovery.
It transforms your career, your business, and the trajectory of your life!
In your work or life,
- How have assumptions affected you?
- How have people skills helped you?
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Featured image above licensed from Istock.com
Related posts:
People Skills: 13 Most Absurd Assumptions and Debates Between Introverts & Extroverts
Leadership Optimism: Dreaming, Discovery, or Denial?
©2013 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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You just bursts one of my assumptions that you will have a video in every post 🙂
Great post Kate!
I relate to that in new couples interactions. Everyone with his or her culture in mind assumes the other party will react in a similar way and get surprised when such an assumption is burst upon a different action than assumed.
The best fix to this which you already mentioned is questioning and challenging assumptions. Try asking the other what if this happen, how do you think we should react?
Regards,
Khalid
Thanks for the call to action to not only recognize that we do have assumptions but to challenge them and be willing to be WRONG and burst them. Nothing like a powerful question or two to get to what’s underneath.
Thanks, Kate!