I can’t read your mind!

As a child, I loved super heroes and their super powers as much as anyone my age. One of the super powers I always wanted was the ability to read minds. Unfortunately, today in business, we often make the assumption that everyone knows what we know….and reality is, we should assume they often don’t!

When you have skills or knowledge one of the challenges you face is the assumption that everyone knows as much (or as little) as you do. We assume others know what we know.  It’s like we expect them to read our minds and know automatically what they are ‘supposed’ to do.

But I can’t read your mind and nor can you read mine.

If you want a specific outcome from a colleague, team member or vendor, you need to let them know what it is you need or expect. In some instances it may take you time to explain, how to do a task in Excel, or animate a graph in a PowerPoint presentation, but isn’t that better than getting frustrated at someone not doing what you expect of them when you haven’t told them what you expect?

So, are your team members trying to read your mind?

If so, maybe it’s time you communicated your expectations of each other rather than trying to read each other’s minds.

Donna Hanson is a professional speaker, trainer and educator who works with organisations and their teams to increase productivity, teamwork and communication.

Find out how Donna can help kickstart your team’s productivity at your next conference, professional development day or retreat, visit www.donnahanson.com or call +61 39457 4745.