Where Are You?

I really enjoy reading Seth Godin's blog.  I even loaded it on my new Droid tablet.  Some of his posts are long, and others are short, but to the point.  A case in point was yesterday's post:

One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you're in the room...

Another is to be the sort of person who is missed when you're not.

The first involves making noise. The second involves making a difference.

I am on a lot of boards and committees.  It seems like at every meeting, people are competing to be heard.  They're not really adding anything to the discussion, just making sure they get heard (and in the process making the meeting much longer than it needs to be!).   When you're lucky, however, there's one person in the room who sits quietly and finally makes just one comment, but it's the perfect comment.  My mom's mother was like that; in fact, you always wanted to sit closely to her so you could hear what she had to say.

I hear you, you're thinking that this is all very interesting, but what does it have to do with the Trenches?  Plenty, actually.  Let's talk again about the client from yesterday.  One of her complaints is that when her now 20 year old daughter testified against her a year and a half ago, I didn't do a "Perry Mason", or for you younger folks out there, a "Law and Order" moment, and rip her limb from limb.  It would have made an impression had I done that, to be sure, but not a good one, nor would it have served any purpose.  What I did is ask her one question.  Her answer to that question won the case and was cited specifically by the judge in her opinion.  I didn't make noise; I made a difference.   Do you think the client would have been happy if I'd have just made noise and she'd lost her case?  

Seth Godin's blog also provides another teaching moment for our clients in the Trenches.  No one wants to be invivisble.  Most of the clients here in the Trenches are afraid if they don't tell their side of the story loudly enough, if they don't give ALL the facts, if they don't talk long (and loudly) enough, then they won't be seen or understood or vindicated.  Really?   What I get from them when they act that way is a headache.  So does the judge.  The people who think and speak deliberately make a far better impression, and have more impact.  When they talk, people listen and pay attention.  

Sometimes I think I want to be heard.  Mostly, I want to be missed.