“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not a truth.” – Marcus Aurelius
I feel grateful and fortunate to have numerous friends and colleagues to bounce ideas off of and that I almost always get a wide range of opinions about what to do. One of my biggest realizations was that their opinions are just that, and not facts. This can be challenging because often their opinions conflict or are given with a lot of strong justification, but I have learned to take in the information as data rather than fact and then come to my own conclusions. Even knowing they have my (or the business’s) best interest in mind, their opinion is not fact and may be way off for me and my situation.
In my negotiating workshops I explain how important it is to gather as much information as possible about the other person or business. Some of that information is based on opinions, for example: “Their business is not doing well so there is no way they are going to give us a price decrease.” I’d ask for some facts to back up the business results and then ask about their cost/margin calculations and overhead so that more information can be used to create possible alternatives versus assuming their position or an opinion that was expressed by someone on the team.
In coaching, I try to avoid giving my opinion at all. But, that is sometimes exactly what a client hires me for, based on my background and experience. If I do give my opinion, I make it very clear that it is just one point of data and that their best solution will come from gathering data from multiple sources and then listening to their internalGPS!
How do you process others’ opinions or give yours in a productive way? Please share in a comment so we can all thrive more.