I was wearing my motivational speaker hat, getting ready to speak to a group of teachers. And while I was doing that – I was musing to myself. You know, making one of those nonverbal sounds as I looked at the table the hotel audio/visual guy had brought me. I was thinking, “that’s just about the perfect size for my props.”
It was then that the A/V man said to me, with zero friendliness, “What’s the problem?”
My first thought was, “Huh? Problem? I don’t have a problem. Why is he so cranky?”
Moral of the story. Do not ASSUME that there is a problem. And even if there IS a problem, don’t use those words. Instead why not say, “Is there anything I can help with?”
Ahhhhh. Much better.
From your motivational speaker, Linda Larsen, with no problems to speak of…
