Now or Later

What is your style. Do you tell someone something, now or later?

There are definitely negatives and positives on both sides. Not all “tells” are negative, some are positive. So it’s definitely something to think about before you act.

If they are a great client and they have spinach in their teeth, do you interrupt the meeting and tell them now? Or, wait until later, maybe on a break when you can inconspicuously let them know before you go back into the conference room?

If your printer did a great job for you, they delivered the job on-time and even under budget; do you tell them they did a great job? Wait… Say, you have another big, important project that has a tight timeline and even smaller budget? Maybe, tell them now and later! Oh, but wait… what if they screwed up? The order wasn’t ready on time, you had to wait and you still need them to finish another one in the queue for tomorrow’s early AM client meeting?

Do you tell your kids that you are taking them on vacation, but that it isn’t the one they really wanted to go on this spring? (Oh, and it’s a family reunion with a bunch of people they’ve never met, and it’s supposed to be cold there. Really cold. Yea…you are also driving 14 hours each way.) To get them to stop whining, do you tell them now that you are going on another one this summer and it is the one they wanted and it’s on an island?

I have to say, it does depend on the circumstances whether I say it now or later… but I am usually a “now” kind of gal. Let’s get it out in the open…unless, I worry that it will hurt someone’s feelings, then, I try to wait until later, so I can think about it some more to soften the blow or make it – at least – less painful.

~ Dawn aka Hat Girl

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