We are getting our house renovated and one of the vendors I am dealing with is a guy who is making our balcony sliding door. He made wrong measurements and thus the door was not fitting well in the balcony. He started making excuses that it is the fault of the structure of our house, which is not true, actually his own measurements in making the door had gone wrong. My wife Indu and I kept telling him for 15 mins that he must accept his mistake and rectify the fault in whatever way possible.
During this time I an Indu both got a little angry at him and even shouted at him a lot. Eventually he accepted his mistake and said that he will definitely rectify it immediately. When we left home after that we both realized something amazing about the guy….We realized that in-spite of arguing with him for 15 mins we don’t mind working with this guy again because of the following reasons:
- He had a gentle smile on him constantly during the argument
- Even though we were shouting at him he did not get irritated even once at us, in-fact he demonstrated great patience.
- He assertively put all his reasons that he believed were true.
- Eventually when he realized he was wrong, he did not hesitate to humbly say sorry and committed to get the job done, which he did!
Based on this experience with we concluded that we will add him to our list of long term vendors. Moral of the story is that in-spite of a conflict (which will always happen in human transactions) if people communicate with a smile, patience, assertiveness, and humbleness then conflicts can make relationships stronger not weak.
So practice these great habits to make conflicts a process of growth for you and everyone you deal with. Smile, Patience, Assertiveness, Humbleness (SPAh) 4 simple practices of great Leaders! Write these 4 words on your office cubicle, your bathroom, your car dash board so it reminds of being a greater human being which you truly are within you.
Live with Passion!
