Charity, Luckiest Girl In The Word!

Sweet Riley looked up at me with those big hazel eyes that melted my heart and said,

“Mama, I think?Charity?is the luckiest little girl in the world!?Look at all of the presents we’re giving her.”

We had just finished cleaning the kids’ rooms.?Each child had a bag of items to go to charity.?

Riley, 4 years old at the time, had only heard?charity?used as a girl’s name, not as the act of giving to others in need.

With a smile on?my face and a?warm heart, we drove to Goodwill.

I explained to her that in this case charity was not?a little girl.?Charity?was something we were doing to?give to those in need.?Sometimes we donate money, sometimes we donate our time by helping out and sometimes we donate clothing and other things so that others who need them can have them.

She laughed and said,?"I like Charity the girl better!"

I love this story, because it showed me, in an innocent and entertaining way, that that the?understanding and context of words matters, a lot!

I have a client who is a leader at a Fortune 100 company, we’ll call her Jane.?Jane is very successful, but b on 1 question, “My supervisor cares about my contributions to the team”.

After some digging, we found out there was a single word at the root of this surprising score –?‘Whatever’

English is Jane’s second language.?While very fluent, sometimes she uses words?out of context.?

She had started using the word?‘whatever’?when responding to her team members good ideas.??

When a team member came to her with a good idea, she would say?‘whatever’.

Jane meant “do?‘whatever’?you need to do, that is a great idea”.

But her team?interpreted?that single word as “’Whatever’, I really don’t care what you do.”

Once Jane explained to them what?she meant, they all laughed at the miscommunication and now use it as a joke.?

Whatever’ is now their team’s code word for ‘great idea’.

One-word,?different context and different interpretations?had caused Jane’s employee scores to plummet.?

The lesson for Jane???Context, interpretation AND words matter.?

‘Whatever’?is no longer a standalone word that Jane uses.?She will say things like, “I think that is a great idea.?Whatever you need to make it happen, let me know.”

Think about both stories. 2 words, both very innocent on their own, were?interpreted?by the listener in ways the speaker did not mean.

?What a different world it would be if everyone heard the words we say as we meant them, all of the time.?But, in real word?this is not what happens.?

So, it is not just about the words we use, it is about the?context and the understanding.?

Has this ever?happened to you?as the speaker or the listener??I'd love to hear your story!