A few years ago, Ignite CSP was hired to coach an executive at an ad agency. Her boss told us, “Her accent is hard to understand. She’s from India, and sometimes her team just can’t make out what she’s saying.”
Vivian Smith went to meet with this client. Interestingly, Vivian had no trouble understanding her at all. What she learned, however, was that this client, the woman she was coaching, was in charge of approving or vetoing the budgets of the creatives who worked at the ad agency. She was the financial wizard who was keeping the whole thing moving forward.
The team didn’t like what she was saying, so they determined, consciously or subconsciously, that they couldn’t understand her.
In our own lives and work, what can we “not hear” because we don’t like the message?
