Page 92 - Mousumi: Unbelievable Transformation

French Emperor was walking past the soldiers smartly standing in rapt attention.
While passing him, one of the soldiers whose promotion was overdue, suddenly
summoned the courage to say, “Your Highness, I would like to say a word, if
you permit.” The Emperor paused a second, smiled sardonically and said, “OK,
meet me tomorrow, but remember only one word!”.
The soldier next day cheekily made out his own promotion order on a
sheet of paper, and thrusting it at Napoleon, simply told the wonderstruck
Emperor, “Sign”.
The bemused Napoleon signed- the soldier got his promotion!

Style of Presentation

On many occasions, I had watched sadly when a friend or colleague was being
bawled at by his superior while discussing some issue. In most of these cases,
there never was any real dispute on the subject being discussed. As mentioned
earlier, the problem, as it would turn out later, was always with the timing, tone
or the way the matter was presented. I have also been ripped apart for similar
reasons. Once, while reporting a breakdown, I told, quite truthfully, while
replying to a very senior officer’s query, “This breakdown keeps happening, Sir.”
He tore me apart in a fury. Later, another colleague reported that he had told the
same fact to the same boss, but he had received the feedback quietly. He
reportedly said, “This equipment does trouble us once in a way, sir, but we are
working on how to overcome the problem.”

Overcome indeed! To my knowledge, the problem persists until today.
The wise gentleman had simply told what his superior wanted to hear.
Truth is indeed important, but the packaging makes all the difference, especially
if you want to hurry up the ladder of success.
To summarize, three vital ingredients for communication are

Timing and mood
Presence of mind
Style of presentation

The points discussed above hold good for written communications also. Always,
an effective communicator has to keep in mind the mindset of the person who is
going to receive the message.

V R Shankar
Retired Mechanical Engineering Professional from Vizag Steel

♦♦Career Mantra♦♦ Page 91