35. Don’t Judge. Get The Facts.

Don’t make assumptions. There’s usually more to the story than it first appears. Gather the facts before jumping to conclusions or making judgments. Be curious about what other information might give you a more complete picture.

John's Message:

Wow, this one has gotten me in a lot of trouble in the past! I think that most of us at one time in our lives have reacted to third party information when we shouldn’t have.

In my career with Famous, one of these instances sticks out. It was early in my career as the manager of the Akron Branch, and one of our Sales Associates came to me with an issue on a delivery. Needless to say, I was upset at how we failed on our customer service and ran back to talk about this with our shipping supervisor, Steve Worcester. I began to communicate my displeasure on how we handled this particular situation, and Steve was more than gracious with how he listened to me, especially with all the emotions I was showing. When I completed my dissertation, Steve smiled at me and said, “Now do you want to know what really happened?” Little did I know that Steve was the one that made that particular delivery. To make a long story short, “open mouth, insert foot.”

In our lives, it’s easy to jump to conclusions without getting all the facts. I think most all of us with children can relate to this as well. In dealing with my two sons, Rocco and Gio, both have opinions on what transpired with issues that arise from time to time. To be in alignment in those conversations, it’s important that we all listen to one another for the best and desired outcomes. The older I get, the more I realize how important this fundamental is personally, with our families and professionally in our business at Famous.

Have a great day.