September 2, 2011

“That’s something I would certainly want to know.”

“Oh, well then we should have told you.”

Since the beginning of time (or somewhere near the beginning), people have been concerned about how they look when standing in front of or being observed by other people.  We’ve all had those inopportune moments where we felt like there was something stuck in our front teeth or an ugly spot was on our tie or blouse.

In a meeting recently where one of the presenters found himself in a situation where the audience wasn’t sure whether to inform him of his “spot on the tie”, his embarrassing situation wasn’t mentioned until he sat down.  When mentioned, he handled it with great aplomb and the meeting continued uninterrupted. 

For some reason, the question of whether to tell someone about “spinach in their teeth” was raised in the middle of the next presentation.  Without hesitation, and already 10 minutes into her pitch, the presenter stated, “That’s something I would certainly want to know.”

The response to her declaration came instantaneously, “Oh, well then we should have told you.”

Now mortified, we watched as the presenter conducted a rapid inventory in her mind, clearly wondering what to do.  Almost as quickly, she realized that she “had been had”.  Nothing was out of order in her appearance. 

When preparing to place ourselves in front of others, we should follow the “lather, rinse, repeat” pattern on shampoo bottles, modifying it to “mirror check, zip, repeat”.  It’s always better to know how you look for yourself than to be left “wanting to know”.

Craig Halsey

They Said It

September 2, 2011