THE WAY THAT OTHERS SEE US

Early in my professional career, I was working for a large international airline as a field representative.  My job was to make sales calls on travel agents and persuade them to book passengers on our airline.  As sales positions go, it was an entry level position.

Less than a year into my job, we had a national sales meeting in Vancouver, BC, where all the field representatives and their managers gathered for our semi-annual meeting.  The Executive Vice-President of Marketing flew in from Honolulu to chair the meeting.  During the two days, he talked about our expansion and a "reorganization of leadership" that was going to take place within the month.  Some people were excited about the reorganization, but others were wary that their positions could be eliminated.

When the meeting was over, the big boss asked me if I would drive him to the airport in Seattle, a two and a half hour drive.  Since I was going in that direction, I was glad to oblige.   After 20 minutes or so of pleasantries and sports talk, he revealed the reason I was driving him to Seattle.   His plan was to make me Director of Sales for all of North America, a newly created position.  I was stunned and immediately started referring to other people in the company that were more qualified and deserving of such a high position.  It didn't seem right that I would leap frog over dozens of people that had been with the airline for decades.

But he went on to explain why he thought I could do the job and why I was the most qualified person in the company, as far as he was concerned.  By the end of the drive, I reluctantly agreed to take the position and actually went on to do very well.  But that experience taught me a huge lesson about the difference between how we see ourselves and how others see us.  The lesson?

We rarely see ourselves the way that others do.


Other people don't see us as potential failures (like we do).  Other people look as us in terms of our strongest traits (not our weakest traits like we do).   Other people visualize us as successful most of the time (not like we do).  Other people have belief in us (even if we don't believe in ourselves).

Sometimes we hide our own greatness behind our fears and doubts and it takes the belief of others to help us break free.