Being a perfectionist by nature, I’ve felt the constant pressure to perfect my ideas and the way in which I share my ideas. I’ve pored over the wording of a pitch or piece of marketing material because in my view that’s what makes the difference between a flop and a success.
Nonetheless, I had the strangest experience today. I came to meeting today of a student organization I’m looking to work with to share an opportunity for creating a shared vision in the organization. I had spent the morning writing and re-writing my pitch and finally came to something that I was comfortable with. However, within the first five minutes of being in the meeting, I realized that what I had come with was not what they needed. For the next half hour I listened to what the group talked about, how they interacted, and what they seemed to be calling for. When it came to be my turn I had shifted my idea. I had come in thinking that what the organization needed was a shared vision of what it was about. But now, I realized what it needed was an opportunity for people to share what this organization would look like if they were excited to be a part of it; an opportunity to connect what they wanted to what the organization would looked like. My intuition was spot on and the group jumped at the opportunity to do this.
It seems to contradict logic, but the less you prepare and the most you listen, the more likely you’ll get what you want. Perhaps the secret of successful marketers and salesmen, because something about it just seems to work.
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