People often think that one person can’t make a difference – I disagree.
From personal lives to business, it doesn’t matter if it is politics, the environment, or personal communication, I hear people say “I’m just one person, what I do won’t change anything.”
Time and again I’ve seen examples that this belief is not true.
We see the big, historical examples like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Malala Yousafzai, and many others. These were individuals who took a stand for something, enrolled others to their cause, and stood steadfast in the face of adversity…
They made a difference.
Now you are probably thinking, but I’m not Gandhi, or MLK, or Malala.
Maybe…Maybe not.
But that’s not my point.
Each of these people started somewhere, with a thought followed by an action, and that made a difference….and so can you.
My area of expertise is interpersonal communication, and I KNOW one person changing their behavior can make a positive impact on the dynamics of a relationship with another person, be it a friend, loved one, customer or team member.
How do I know, you ask?
I’ve seen it!
I’ve had clients tell me.
Maybe it’s changing the words you use to start a conversation from questions to acknowledgements – that helped one client gain new openness and trust with her son.
Maybe it’s having a conversation using “yes, and…” instead of “yes, but…” – that helped a client go from an adversarial, defensive response from an employee to a collaborative, solution-focused conversation and a change of the behavior that didn’t work.
One client shared that her entire team, including her boss, commented on how valuable her improved communication skills were to all of them, and that the team continued to benefit long after her time with me concluded.
Maybe it’s as simple as asking a co-worker about how they are doing and really listening and caring about their answer – I had a previous co-worker tell me that made a huge difference to her.
I am grateful that my co-worker shared how much my communication supported her. Her sharing provided two things: 1) It let me know how to continue to support her, and 2) I got to know that I’d made a difference. That was her gift to me – so often we make a difference and we don’t even know it. We might not even remember the things we said or did.
I learned of a situation this year where I did something for a classmate more than 25 years ago – it was a simple thing that I did that I had completely forgotten. Yet for her it left a lasting memory that she still shares fondly with people, and it built an invisible tie between us that lasted decades.
So don’t believe the statement “I’m just one person, what I do won’t change anything.”
Sometimes it will be a single action or conversation that makes a difference.
Sometimes it will be repeated actions that build a new pattern of behavior over time.
One person….YOU…can make a difference, change a pattern or behavior….
CHANGE LIVES!
And if what you want to change is a communication pattern (or miscommunication pattern) and you don’t know where to start, that’s where I come in. Book a
