I think it applies just as much outside the business world. If you ARE the boss (or rather, the head of a nonprofit organization dedicated to X good thing) and must continuously tell people that you need to postpone things because you need more time to better prepare… you are going to have a hard time maintaining people’s interest, people are going to be less willing to invest in your cause.
Am I understanding correctly that you do consider it dishonest to stand up straight, keep feet properly planted and avoid nervous behaviors?
If that’s the only thing you needed to be able to improve at doing, why does it matter whether you practiced for hours until you had drilled out the possibility of ever doing it wrong, or just went and DID it?
[Edit: I agree that the Business world will have ADDITIONAL things that you’d have to compromise on and good for you to avoid something that’d make you unhappy. There are many places where I probably share your idealism. But I think you are setting a standard for yourself that would actively make the world a worse place if it were widely adopted]
Well the key phrase is “continuously”. I’m not saying you make a habit of repeatedly requesting extensions. But if you need one, I think you should ask for it, and I think it’s better for everyone if you do. But if you need an extension on every project you have, you should be fired.
Am I understanding correctly that you do consider it dishonest to stand up straight, keep feet properly planted and avoid nervous behaviors?
Dishonest would be a stretch. But you are not presenting your true mental state. Which could be the right thing to do—if presenting in such a manner helped your audience’s ability to understand, then you should. But I would say that the better thing to do is to recognize the situation you’re in and analyze where is best to go from there. That may be presenting to the best of your ability. But it might also be humbly asking to present the next day and apologize for not preparing enough. I think most people would understand if it were an isolated incident.
If I think someone’s idea is stupid, I don’t think I’m making the world a better place by representing my true mental state. Every day at work, there’s a colleague who grates on me slightly. Accurately representing my mental state to him every time would be disastrous. There are dozens of instances every day where accurately representing myself would make the world a worse place for myself and the people around me.
I only think this is a problem if “accurately presenting your mental state” is something relevant to whatever it is you’re doing. Which mostly amounts to friendships and relationships—establishing close emotional bonds with people.
The people didn’t come to the presentation to form a close bond with you or get an accurate map of your personality—they came to see a presentation.
When you are first meeting a girl, you’re not immediately establishing a deep, personal connection (not usually anyway). The initial few minutes are about establishing that you two are both interesting people and it’s worth the two of your time to get to know each other. Trust and personal connection comes later (possibly soon afterwards, but it’s not part of the first few minutes).
Don’t put a false version of yourself forward. But do put the best version of yourself forward.
I think it applies just as much outside the business world. If you ARE the boss (or rather, the head of a nonprofit organization dedicated to X good thing) and must continuously tell people that you need to postpone things because you need more time to better prepare… you are going to have a hard time maintaining people’s interest, people are going to be less willing to invest in your cause.
Am I understanding correctly that you do consider it dishonest to stand up straight, keep feet properly planted and avoid nervous behaviors?
If that’s the only thing you needed to be able to improve at doing, why does it matter whether you practiced for hours until you had drilled out the possibility of ever doing it wrong, or just went and DID it?
[Edit: I agree that the Business world will have ADDITIONAL things that you’d have to compromise on and good for you to avoid something that’d make you unhappy. There are many places where I probably share your idealism. But I think you are setting a standard for yourself that would actively make the world a worse place if it were widely adopted]
Well the key phrase is “continuously”. I’m not saying you make a habit of repeatedly requesting extensions. But if you need one, I think you should ask for it, and I think it’s better for everyone if you do. But if you need an extension on every project you have, you should be fired.
Dishonest would be a stretch. But you are not presenting your true mental state. Which could be the right thing to do—if presenting in such a manner helped your audience’s ability to understand, then you should. But I would say that the better thing to do is to recognize the situation you’re in and analyze where is best to go from there. That may be presenting to the best of your ability. But it might also be humbly asking to present the next day and apologize for not preparing enough. I think most people would understand if it were an isolated incident.
If I think someone’s idea is stupid, I don’t think I’m making the world a better place by representing my true mental state. Every day at work, there’s a colleague who grates on me slightly. Accurately representing my mental state to him every time would be disastrous. There are dozens of instances every day where accurately representing myself would make the world a worse place for myself and the people around me.
I only think this is a problem if “accurately presenting your mental state” is something relevant to whatever it is you’re doing. Which mostly amounts to friendships and relationships—establishing close emotional bonds with people.
The people didn’t come to the presentation to form a close bond with you or get an accurate map of your personality—they came to see a presentation.
When you are first meeting a girl, you’re not immediately establishing a deep, personal connection (not usually anyway). The initial few minutes are about establishing that you two are both interesting people and it’s worth the two of your time to get to know each other. Trust and personal connection comes later (possibly soon afterwards, but it’s not part of the first few minutes).
Don’t put a false version of yourself forward. But do put the best version of yourself forward.