I often find myself sharing opinions on matters of knowledge and not just experience. I’ve learned two things from this:
- Sharing opinions based on knowledge falls on deaf ears. Sharing opinions based on experience earns respect and attention.
- It is better to ask questions, the right questions. The kind of questions that allow you to share and teach without doing all the talking.
First, I have learned that sharing opinions based on knowledge is not as powerful as sharing opinions based on experience. I learned this lesson the other day. Since I started a new position at a company I have been casually commenting on the fact that our Facebook Page has too much “we we” in it (“we we” is the term I use to describe companies that just talk about themselves on social media sites).
“Look, our Page is stagnant and it is just posts from us” I’d say. The advice fell on deaf ears. Then the new guy comes in who’s fanpage has half as many fans as us in only four months time. The CEO asks, “How come you are growing so fast?” Long story short, the new guy suggests what I’d been saying, and the CEO acts on it. :(
No one wants to hear unsubstantiated jabber. Providing an opinion merely because you think it will add value does not; it is counter productive.
The key to me it seems, is to ask the right kind of questions. Questions that let the other guy do the talking.