I was driving down the street the other day, dutifully following the GPS instructions, which wended me through neighborhoods, built-up areas and a variety of other places. At one point, a driver suddenly pulled out in front of me and proceeded to move forward at no more than ten miles per hour. I couldn’t see the driver and I felt for a moment that I should get irritated that someone had the audacity to hold up my very important (or so I thought) trip.
Then I saw the building the person had pulled out from. It was a local hospital. My mind shifted from some level of irritation to a feeling of embarrassment and compassion. The driver might have just left the bedside of a loved one, or received a diagnosis that was life-threatening. Or maybe a relative, friend or neighbor might have just passed away. I thought about such times in my life and instantaneously wrote a narrative of understanding and empathy for the driver.
In life and the business world, we often don’t get such stark reminders of our own need for emotional intelligence, appreciation, and understanding of another person. So we are prone to draw conclusions that are judgmental, perhaps giving us a high level of justification for our own feelings and a near-certainty that the other person might just not care or is oblivious to our needs or the needs of the business. Doing so can serve as a sort of misplaced validation of our own importance or our own instincts, I suppose. At least I know I have felt that way at times. Read More…
