The level of adaptability that you are able to display will affect the ease that you are able to work with other people. Have you ever met with someone and you didn’t see eye to eye? You wondered where they were coming from? or maybe you know people at work or have friends who behave differently than you. It’s so hard to hang out, because you feel like you aren’t yourself. That is adapting.
Think of the most important person that you know. Think of that person. For me – I’d have to say that person is Bill Johnson. When I see Bill, I will do my best to adapt to him so that he feels the most comfortable around me. I’ll try not to speak out of turn, and I’ll listen to what he has to say. You might think, that’s just sucking up. No, not at all. On the contrary. It is honoring the other person. When I adapt my behavior when I am in another’s presence, that is very honoring of that person.
That makes sense, right? You will naturally adapt to people that you look up to. Or people that scare you (Highway Patrol). That is the easy part. That goes without thinking.
Now, I want you to think of someone who isn’t very important. No, I won’t name an example here! Lets just call this person U.P. (unvalued person). When I run into U.P., what do I do? I automatically think everything that this person is doing is wrong. This person doesn’t know what they are talking about, I change the subject on that person. But that’s not right! It is absolutely important that I treat everyone the same. Who am I to decide that U.P. isn’t an important person? Not my place.
How do I treat U.P. then? I treat U.P. exactly the same as I would Bill Johnson, or any other person. I was recently at a breakfast in Yreka for Toastmasters on a visit to their Toastmaster’s club. At breakfast, I was sitting by a blind man. Now, I didn’t pretend to be blind, but while I was sitting there talking to him I became interested in his phone/scanner that read the menu to him. I was interested in his writing as well as everything he was talking about. Why? Because, he is important.
At work, it’s very easy to adapt to your boss. When you meet with your boss, you do your best to find what she things is important as very important. If she cares about people, you might find yourself also caring about people when you are around her. Now, think of the people that you think are under you. Do you adapt to them? You should. If you only adapt up, but not down, people won’t know what to think of you. Your boss will receive complaints about your behavior and think, “that’s not Chris”, and the people under you will hear your boss say good things about you and think, “he’s not that nice at all! he’s rude to me”.
When should you adapt? Always.
When are you right, and they are wrong? Never.
No Comments