Being “Right” Is Of Little Importance

Focus on understanding and providing value instead

If you set out to prove you’re right, you’ll surely benefit from winning the argument, but what if I told you many people make someone else wrong in order to make themselves right; and that doesn’t really benefit anyone.

Whether you’re a writer, reader, business owner, or customer of a business, understanding that your part to play in society is not to be right will help you lead a happier, fuller life because you’ll start to understand that:

You don’t have to agree, you just have to try to understand

I’m personally not a religious person, but I can absolutely understand why someone else might be. After all, they’re different to I am, and that’s ok.

When we set out to be right, we make it all about ourselves, and really, our job as service providers should be to see how we fit in with everyone else, how we can help them, and how we contribute to society.

Opinions are subjective:

Other than the moral victory that comes with it, being right is often bittersweet; your knowledge of the facts was better than your opponents.

But what about when there are few or no facts? At this point, we’re talking about opinion, and we know everyone has one.

Similarly, thanks to nature and nurture, different people might have different experiences of what is right and wrong. Do we really want to argue with someone about how they should raise their children or conduct their business just because we think we know a better way?

Remember to only share an opinion when relevant, if it is helpful.

It’s ok to be wrong:

Everyone gets things wrong from time to time, and handling being wrong with elegance and grace can actually be advantageous in business and personal contexts.

Being wrong is not the same as failing. Tom Watson put it this way when one of his young executives made a multi-million mistake and expected to be fired:

“Not at all, young man, we have just spent a couple of million dollars educating you.”

That’s a pretty good attitude to have if you ask me.

It’s way more important to be helpful than to be right. Whilst opinion-pieces have launched an entire marketing movement of “Thought-Leadership”, unless you’re operating in the service industry, is your opinion and need to be right really the best representation of your audience’s needs in the first place?

Having a positive impact:

Think about it this way: most businesses are operating in saturated, competition-laden markets.

They can’t all be right, can they?

Actually, they can.

There are different ways to achieve similar or identical results, and different methods will resonate differently with different audiences.

When your message — whatever it is — comes from a foundation of listening rather than talking; demonstrating an awareness and emotional connection with your audience, you’ll start to have much better results.

In the same vein, we shouldn’t treat our potential customers, customers, staff, and other stakeholders differently; we should treat everybody well.

That might sound hard, but really it’s as simple as saying:

• Help us learn about you
• We want to listen
• You are safe with and can trust us

Very quickly, your opinion and your desire to be right fall by the wayside, replaced with a genuine, authentic desire for connection with and understanding of your audience.

The way to a healthier, happier, more successful life is to make people feel heard, not to make them think you’re right, and that they’re wrong.