Number 16 of 52 Lifelong Communication Lessons: Everybody's got a story
April 20, 2015
The year was 1983.
The hit movie that year was The Big Chill (a personal favourite). Sally Ride at 32 years old becomes the first woman in space and sadly, singer Karen Carpenter, also 32 dies from anorexia nervosa. I was 29. In Vancouver, The Province newspaper came out in tabloid format.
I was the Director of a public relations division of an ad agency. One of my clients was a gentleman who was a management consultant in the mining sector. I say "gentleman" because he truly was a gentle, thoughtful man. At the time, with all due respect, I thought he bordered on the dull side. Long time corporate guy with not much of a sense of humour.
My job was to get him quoted in the media and build more awareness about his expertise. I don't think he was that eager to be profiled as he was resistant to tooting his own horn. However, he did embrace the media training and was keen to have good background materials about the business.
In the media training, I could not help but notice his great ability to persuade and engage in the mock interviews. He was a serious, staid man so it was tad surprising to witness this other persona. Almost a Clark Kent, Superman-type transformation.
Many, many months later, I found out about another aspect of his life that brought it all into focus. This man specialized in talking people out of suicide. His lovely executive assistant shared stories of his "other" life with me. I would never have imagined this fellow in his tweed, three piece suits literally talking people off the ledge. He actually convinced a woman to not to jump off the Lion's Gate Bridge. The stories from his assistant were inspirational.
I had finished my contract by the time I found out about this amazing aspect of an obviously smart and caring man. It was too late to reconnect but I always wished I had been able to look beneath that conservative exterior. I did get a lesson or two from this experience but I expect there could have been even more had I found a way to get to know the man behind the tweed.
Communication lessons:
- Aside from the obvious, don't judge a book by its cover, know that everyone has a story.
- Always take time to get to know people on a personal level. I have since looked up this man. He had many fascinating attributes and wrote great articles about stress.
- Get to know everyone in the circle. That executive assistant helped me learn this valuable communication lesson.
Fast forward to 2015:
There is another story to everybody. Think about the tragic loss of Robin Williams.
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