Mr. Know It All

Today Susan and I were hosting a leadership training at Manulife Financial in Waterloo for a select group of staff with our company, in2possibility. After an interactive exercise, Susan comes up to me and makes an observation. She shares it with me and says, “I’d like to share this with the team.” I reflect on it, and suggest it might not serve. About two minutes later, one of the VP’s of talent development comes over and makes the same observation almost word for word.

I look at Susan, who at this point is grinning ear to ear, and I sheepishly say – “That’s what Susan was just saying.”

She shared her observation and it had a profound impact on the training. Due to the fact that my business partner is also my wife, we are closer to each other than we are to anyone else. It is embarrassing to admit that I couldn’t see the brilliance in what Susan was saying, but based on results, my familiarity with Susan made it easy for me to quickly dismiss her idea.

Who else is so close to us that at times, we dismiss the wisdom in their words too hastily? What does that cost us?