Speak from heart

In an oversimplified way, people speak in three different manners: spontaneous responses, filtered by logical thinking, and voice of your heart.

Remember when I was in graduate school, I was cleaning up the lab, which was supposed to be a shared job by all graduate students. A girl, who walked into the lab and saw what I was doing, causally questioned my motivation of doing that. I was quite annoyed to say the least because she was supposed to help me instead of mocking me. Well, the girl became my wife later…that’s another story for another day.

Anyway, my point is people make spontaneous comments without being filtered through their slow thinking process (Thinking, Fast and Slow). In a work environment, people are instead encouraged and rewarded to speak via the second category, which is a rationalized process to make logical arguments and influence via reason.

Here I would like to argue the benefit of speaking from your heart, even in a work environment, to maximize the power of your influence. This is certainly risky because obviously you open up your vulnerability when doing so. But doing it right, you can gain great deal of trust among the people you value the most. Do you want to give it a try?