Answering a call when busy.

Have you ever called up a friend who was in the middle of getting important work done?  Who frantically ended the call with a nervous “sorry, can’t talk now, in the middle of something, got to go, bye?”

I had a friend who did this all the time. Every call ended in a jarring way, leaving both of us bit frazzled.

I had another friend who did things differently.

He was a big shot at a large company. He too had meetings all day. Whenever I called, he warmly greeted me, asked me what’s on my mind, then excitedly asked if there was anything else.

Then, he would calmly say “is this something you need an answer right now? If not, I’d like to think about it, then get back to you. I’m in the middle of something. Does that work?”

Both friends said the same thing. One took just an extra minute to make it an enjoyable experience.

Where else can we take just a minute to transform a negative encounter into a positive one?

Thanks for caring!

With gratitude,

Anwell Tsai