You Made a Mistake ……
That’s how somebody reached out to me! Let me briefly talk about my latest occurrence last weekend.
Exactly a message like that - “You made a mistake”- reached me last weekend on Instagram. My first thoughts: That’s a very interesting way to start a conversation wanting to sell something?
Know What You’re Talking About!
What happened:
Somebody had looked at my website and detected something, which was (in her/his opinion) wrong. That person and I had previously attended a life session about a product. She/he got curious about me and had a look at my business website, at least she/he thought so…
First, I have two websites; one which is not active and the second is my business website - Plan A2C, where I grow my business with. The person had a look at the one, which is inactive, told me the mistake (in her/his opinion) I had made and told me that she/he could help me fix these kinds of issues.
To let somebody know having made a mistake is certainly a very interesting way to sell. What do you think? Did I get in touch with that person? Of course not, I didn’t even bother to write back and deleted the message. Maybe that person tried a hook to sell something…. I don’t know, but that one didn’t work.
How does this relate to employees communication?
What does this have to do with employees/team members conversation or meetings? A lot. Let me explain. Imagine you start a conversation like this one with an employee/team member wanting to discuss a mistake she/he made. Even if you’re angry and upset about the mistake and this person, starting a conversation like this will probably lead to nowhere.
Imagine you being in this position of her or him? You would probably shut down and don’t listen, as often it feels like blaming somebody. In a personal conversation we cannot physically delete messages, however we can avoid that the message entering our brains or delete it the moment it reaches our brain.
How to Sell Anything!
What are your options?
Start with an opening the conversation with something positive. E.g., mention what somebody has achieved or similar. Create an open atmosphere. No matter what mistake somebody has made, you don’t want it to happen again, right? That’s why I suggest to talk about the mistake in a second place, when you can be sure that your interlocutor is listening. Imagine how you would react and keep in mind that you want your employee/team member to change a process for example to avoid the same mistake in the future. Mistakes happen, they are not popular, however they bear a change of improvement. Repetitive mistakes shouldn’t happen too often. That’s another subject to talk about some other time
So, whenever you have to talk to your employees/team member about something unpleasant, don’t bang the door! Remember you want changes and improvements and not somebody who walks away, pressing delete after you talked to them.
