THE LETTER

A boss in one of my former places of employment had chosen me in the department to handle a particular transaction that included managing a high profile client. A very impatient man I dare say and always on the move. He had asked if I was clear on the instruction and I answered in the affirmative, at least it didn’t look like I would break a sweat.

A few weeks down the line and my colleagues who envied me being the chosen one were now beginning to sympathize with me. They were many grey areas in the transaction which caused many road blocks. In a bid to prove my mettle, I tried to manage it myself and muddled up the whole assignment, Now it was too late to manage so I lost the transaction. My boss was furious because of the money lost and didn’t hold back in lashing at me.

I got home sad and relieved the experience to my dad who listened quietly then began to speak. He said to me, your boss is the originator of the message no matter what is happening, he can’t lose sight of what he wants to achieve. He went on to say as much as I wanted to get the job done, I shouldn’t have ignored the one who sent me and that every time I got stuck I should have gone back to him so as to remain within view of what we set out to achieve.

My dad now recounted how frustrated he was when writing letters for his own dad (my grandfather) in his younger days. He said his old man would tell him someone was owing and call him to write a letter that He (my dad), would read to the debtor when he got to where the person was. The content included things like; you are trying me; this is insulting’ and you know you are junior to me, before I close my eyes and open it my money must be in front of me.

My dad said he listened but rather chose to use the opportunity to demonstrate the letter writing skills he had learned in school. Rather than follow the dictation from his dad, he would replace words like, ‘you are trying me’ with, ‘I am losing patience; ‘this is insulting and you know you are junior to me’ with words like, ‘I am not of your class’; and things like, ‘ before I close my eyes and open it’, with words like, ‘Speed up the payment now’.

His dad would now ask if he got everything to which he nodded. Just when he was about to leave his old man will ask him to read what he wrote. out to him He recounted the strange look he got when he read something totally different from what was dictated to him. His dad would now ask him if he had eaten because he couldn't seem to understand the discrepancies. After making the same mistake over and over, he decided to just write it as he was told. The man knew what he wanted and how to go about it.

He explained that in communication no matter how brilliant your thoughts are or how eloquent your speech is, you must never lose sight of the message. O how I have held on to those words and used it both in my writing and speaking engagements and even today they still work. A relationship without communication is just two people. The one we shared with daddy was so rich and so eventful…Good Night Daddy#DiaryOfACorporateTrainer#WorkWednesday#WorkChronicles#Training#AllInAdaysJob#