Successful Interaction

The way people perceive you will depend upon the way you interact with them. We interact with people in one of three basic modes:
• Superior to inferior.
• Inferior to superior.
• Equal to equal.

SUPERIOR TO INFERIOR

The superior-to-inferior relationship can take several forms.

One is the boss-underling relationship. That's the standard relationship between management and employees in the authoritarian work place. We've seen it in the comic-strip relationship betwee
Dagwood and Mr. Dithers. Charles Dickens described it in his story of Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchett. That relationship is outdated in the 21st century environment. If you approach employees, colleagues, or customers with a superior attitude, you can bet that you'll turn them off. Americans have been thoroughly indoctrinated in the philosophy that all people are created equal. Superior position, superior knowledge, superior expertise and superior experience will win you respect, but only if you display the proper regard for the self-worth of others.

INFERIOR TO SUPERIOR

Many gifted people never become all that they could become because they harbor feelings of inferiority. They're afraid to express their own ideas for fear that others know more than they know. They're reluctant to take the initiative because they feel that others are more qualified.

TRUMAN TOOK CHARGE

Harry Truman may have felt that way initially when the weight of the presidency fell on him. He had to step into the shoes of the man many regarded as the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln. He had to assume national leadership at a time when the global political order had been shattered. This ex-farmer, unsuccessful haberdasher, and small-time Missouri politician, who hadn't even gone to college, had to negotiate with the likes of Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin and Charles DeGaulle. He had to give orders to George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight Eisenhower, Chester Nimitz and Bull Halsey. He had to deal with the question of nuclear weapons, the existence of which had been unknown to him before taking office. Upon his shoulders fell the weight of rebuilding Europe, stopping communism in Greece, Turkey, Iran, and Korea, and of reconstituting Japan as a friendly democracy. And at home he had to deal with aggressive labor leaders, defiant segregationists who resisted his efforts at dismantling racial barriers, and virulent red-baiters who were willing to sacrifice democratic principles in their zeal to exterminate communism.

Had Truman communicated with Stalin and Churchill as inferior to superiors; had he allowed Douglas MacArthur free rein in the Far East; had he knuckled under to domestic foes with far greater academic and intellectual credentials; had he doubted his own capacity for decision-making; the post-war story would have been far different.

Were all of Truman's decisions the correct ones?

Of course not. Some of them had unfortunate consequences. Some of them are still being hotly debated. But his standing as a leader is unquestioned.
In whatever field you choose to enter, you will never be any better than you think you are. If you regard yourself as inferior to others, others will regard you as inferior to them. If you confidently assume the role of a leader, others will follow your leadership.

EQUAL TO EQUAL

The most effective mode of communicating with people is as equal to equal. That doesn't mean that CEOs have to wear coveralls to work and crawl into the grease pits with their line employees.

It does mean that executives, managers and supervisors at all levels must respect the dignity of every person in the organization and communicate with employees on a human-to-human rather than a boss-to-underling basis.