I proposed to Julie during our first trip to Paris, 38 years ago.
The following day we walked up 430 feet to the hilltop of Montmartre, known for its beautiful vistas and abundance of street artists. We lingered amongst the local artists, many of them portrait artists, and all of them aggressive salespeople.
We buckled under pressure and figured we would commemorate our engagement with a portrait of Julie. The artist did a nice job as you can see below, so we decided to splurge (it was a lot of money for us back then) on a portrait for me also from a different artist.
We assumed (warning sign) that my artist had similar skills, but did not realize that the only portrait he really knew how to draw was that of Michael Jackson (proof below).
So, we returned home after our engagement with a beautiful portrait of my bride-to-be and a lovely drawing of Michael Jackson. 😊
Making assumptions can leave you less than satisfied. In The 5 Coaching Habits of Excellent Leaders, the first habit is to explain expectations (and not make any assumptions).
Aligning on clear explanations is the starting point for excellent coaching. Many of our executive coaching engagements include ensuring that the leader and his/her team members have aligned on expectations. Clarity, not assumptions, is the pathway to reliable results.
