How we say things…

…has much more impact on people than we often think they would or wouldn’t.

Here’s another “airport story” that - at least for my part - proved one of our beliefs to be true: they way you phrase something - the worst or best news - can change a person’s day quite a bit.

Here we are, coming in late with one flight, boarding for the next flight already starting when we’re not even on the bus to the terminal yet. One woman next to me gets really nervous and asks the bus driver if she even has the lightest chance to catch her connection. The bus driver remains calm, asks her about her gate and then says that she shouldn’t worry since it’s really just up the stairs and a few yards and she’ll make that distance within a few minutes. One could see that she was still worried, but feeling slightly better since the bus driver was showing a very positive attitude and encouraged her to not worry.

A few minutes later - my next flight was basically about to leave when I got off the bus - I asked the Lufthansa assistant whether I was able to catch that flight or if she had some advice. The only comment she made was “run up the stairs and ask at the other desk, they’ll be able to tell you more”. I felt like an idiot, not only disappointed about the poor customer service, but also about the lack of “mental support”, felt a sudden drain of my energy, frustration and no desire to head up the stairs and run like a goof through the terminals; I’d never make it to my flight…;  due to my responsibilities though, I couldn’t afford to miss the flight and started to run, arrived breathless at the gate and just made it to the plane.

While starting to relax and breathe deeply again in my seat, I thought about what just happened and realized, how happy that other woman must have been to just hear some encouraging words (even if she didn’t make it to the plane or had to walk at a faster pace to the next gate). She had at least much more of that positive spirit and energy in her, with a great deal of hope that she’ll reach her destination.

It’s so important how you approach people, how you tell them critical things, how you inform them about sad or bad issuess, how you can still generate some positive energy within the worst situation.