Thursday, August 09, 2007
Taxicab Confessions
I travel a lot. So...it means something when I’m surprised by events on-the-road.
On the way to see a client in St. Louis, the taxicab driver was quite the talker and one of his comments caught me off guard. This just begged for me to create a list of “Things You Don’t Want to Hear From Your Cab Driver”:
1) “You just won a free trip to the Zoo for being my tenth customer!”
2) “Want to play a game of gin rummy before heading out?”
3) “Did I remember to put your luggage in the trunk?”
4) “Don’t worry about the missing inside locks—I removed them so nobody would skip out on the fare.”
5) “I have narcolepsy.”
The “I have narcolepsy” statement is the one that stunned me. What do you do with that information while traveling 65mph down the expressway?
As a leader, you are usually moving at a lightening-quick pace, and may not be fully present with your team. What sort of information might innocently slip out while you are flying through your daily tasks? It may not have been your intention to reveal a fact, yet the team now knows something sensitive and has a different perception of your leadership ability.
Here’s the kicker—depending on the type of information revealed, you may have lost the teams’ respect. It will take time and subsequent consistently good behavior to overcome this faux pas. Possible? Yes. Easy? No.
Back to St. Louis—I managed a constant stream of gibberish to keep that cab driver awake enough to get me to my hotel. I’m about to get very friendly with car rental agencies.
Until next time...live like you mean it,
Marjorie