Have you been in that situation? In your job you are convinced something is very important. But when you mention it, you feel ignored, not taken seriously, not listened to. I know that when you make a list of ‘Reasons why people leave their job’ this will most likely not be on it. But if you really talk to people, and when I look at myself, this is a very important reason why you often start thinking if you wouldn’t change jobs.
What happens? Are those people the worst people in the world? Sometimes they are. Often they are not. We are just not trained in spending time on something we don’t find important ourselves. And I believe that should change.
The right person
When you are in a new job, when you take on some new responsibility or when you take over when someone is on holiday, you are not that experienced. That means you might contact the wrong people. That person can react in three different ways: point you in the right direction, ignore you altogether, or help you find the right way. Yes, the second one happens a lot and it gives you the feeling what you want is not important. Because you don’t know it’s not the right person. So, it’s already better to be pointed in the right direction. But, certainly, when someone is doing something new, someone in the company should say ‘I’ll help you finding your way in this company’. It’s important that people are taught who they should contact when there is an important problem. How the complete procedure works for problems like this. Not only so a person feels he or she is taken seriously. But also it reduces the risk the company is missing something important.
The right arguments
Not all persons have the skills to give the right arguments. I would like to say that this is a skill that grows with experience. But my experience is, this is not true. The problem with this is that people are judged on their arguments. Not strange. But unfortunately wrong. I think everyone has known a person that was such a good salesperson, that he could sell lies, things that are going to hurt the company, and the company would still do it. On the other hand, you have persons really good at their job, but they don’t have the skills to sell.
For a very, very long time, I have been a person in this category. I was often hired because a company wanted to start with testing. And most of the time they noticed it worked. The quality of their product went up. But when they found out how I worked or what I wanted, I wasn’t able to explain why. Some persons believed the results. Some needed to be convinced. And if they were not convinced, they wouldn’t listen.
Does that mean you should do something a person wants when he or she is good at his or her job? No. The problem is not that someone needs convincing. The problem is: convincing is a skill that needs to be learned. My problem was, that for a long time I couldn’t find the people to teach me this skill. So, why I did become a better and better tester, I still couldn’t sell it to others.
The difficulty is that handling this differently is really a change of thinking. When someone says: ‘This is important’ and doesn’t convince you, you shouldn’t react with ‘You didn’t convince me, so it’s not important’ or ‘You have had your change’. Make sure someone takes the time to find out why it is seen as important. Look preferably for a good listener and explainer. So he or she can find out why this is seen as important and then can explain it to you. When you find out why this is seen as important, there are three options:
- It’s not important
This almost never happens, but it can. Take the time to explain to a person why this is not important. Make sure a person understands. Yes, just like you want to have good arguments, you should be able to have good arguments to convince someone else. If you don’t, that person might not mention something that really is important. - It’s important, but not important enough
It can happen that what a person finds important, is important. But other things are more important. Explain why you cannot do what is asked right now. And, very important, also use this as a teaching moment. for that person - It’s important to act now
I think you understand that you should do it. But that is not enough. Use this as a teaching moment. Explain how you make your decisions, what you want to hear. Is it time needed? Is it risk? Is it the impact it has on the company? Explain what a person should have told you to convince you.
The right actions
What I ask of every reader is to change your mindset. I do not ask you to start thinking that good arguments aren’t important. Or going to the right person is not. No, I want you to find all of this very important. I want you to find it so important that people go to the right persons, that you always make time available to teach people who the right persons are. And I want you to find good arguments so important, that you only see something as not important or not important enough when you have convinced the other of that fact. Yes, that takes time. But it’s important to be that person where people go to when there is something important. Else you might miss something, you would have liked to know.