Category: Tech Tips

When it comes to fact checking a story it is a little more straightforward; but what about when it is personal experiences and lessons learned?

I was challenged a few years back on this subject when asked what relevant experience a person had in relationship to what they were communicating. A great example was someone who ‘knew’ about running a business vs someone who actually was running a business. One might have the theory and head-knowledge, but the person who is actually running that business is the one that has the credibility.

This isn’t a knock on education at all, quite the opposite.

I heard John Maxwell say once when he was asked about the hurdles that young leaders have to overcome say, in essence, that the hard part in being a young leader is that you ‘know’ more than you have experienced.

That isn’t a bad thing, in fact it is a great thing, because when you ‘know’ something and then experience it, the lesson is ingrained. When you experience something without the knowledge of what you are going through, you learn the lesson the hard way (and the hard way is not my favorite way personally).

These experiences that people learn and pass on to others is true in tangible things (don’t put gasoline in a diesel engine for example) but they apply to soft skills as well.

As I am on the sales and marketing side of Alyrica there are soft skills that I have learned and teach our team about working with people, conflict resolution, leadership and management.

There is plenty to talk about on those subjects, but I’m going to leave that alone for now.