I am Jamaica's husband, Foursquare's comm director, Personality's founder, and a catalyst for CFCC.
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January 29, 2007
Telling People What They Want to Hear
Filed under: Leadership
I was on a conference call last week when the gentleman on the other end of the phone asked for an update on how many people were registered for a particular event my team is responsible for promoting. Knowing that the numbers would be lower than what he was wanting to hear, my mind began racing for creative ways to communicate the real numbers. I was trying to avoid that downer moment when everyone in the room and on the call would look at me as if I had just taken the bottle away from a starving infant orphan.
Instead, I chose to go for the baby's bottle and reported the real numbers. It was a downer. No one took into consideration that the numbers were actually right on track. They instead suffered from that disease so many of us can relate to that says success isn't measured by reality, it's measured by perception.
When perception dictates our success, reality seems unbearable. I believe at the core of this problem is our driving need for acceptance. We want people to accept us, but we're unwilling to accept ourselves, so we hide behind a perception that is ultimately untrue.
I'm tired of hiding. And trying to see behind your mask is getting a little old too.
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