I don't know if this is factual. However,
I would say this is a great example
of how differently people can view the
same situation, given the chance.
It's all about the way you see things.
Sometimes we're so busy looking at things
one way, and being unhappy, that we forget
that there might just be (and likely are)
other ways to look at them.
When you read below, think about these
few questions:
Which employee would you rather have working
for you?
Which employee would you rather be?
If you were in Africa, which representative
would you hope would come into your neck
of the woods?
The answers will tell you a little something
about your own perspectives. There is no
right or wrong. There is only what works,
and what doesn't. What works for you?
**********
Two sneaker companies each send a marketing
representative to a small African country
to assess the prospects of business expansion.
One representative sends back an e-mail saying,
"It's a dead end; everyone is barefoot."
The other representative sends back his e-mail saying,
"The sky is the limit; everyone is barefoot!"
**********
I would guess that many reading this would
potentially think that the second perspective
would be more empowering than the first.
My question would be for which party?
Maybe the African people wouldn't want the
sneakers. You never know. It might not be
something that would work for them.
Just because it works for the sneaker company,
and its employee, and it is empowering perspective
for them, doesn't mean that the Africans would
feel empowered by something that another thinks
would be potentially good for them.
The next time you are trying to be helpful,
and someone is resisting you,
consider that what we personally view as
an empowering perspective,
may not always occur as
empowerment to another.
