How often do you run into a person who seems to be personally committed to ruining your day?
Unfortunately, it happens all too often!
The odd part about this is that it is as counter-productive as almost anything a person could do . . . and is something that I borrow from the sports fields as an instance of “Talking SMACK.”
Sometimes it’s in good humor . . . Just an innocent “ribbing” to inspire competitive ire . . . Other times, it’s displaced and just plain WRONG!
It’s a bad reflection on the Smack talker . . . That person’s Team/Organization . . . and everyone in Leadership roles associated with the event.
The Basketball court is a microcosm of this smack talking dynamic . . . I got the below email about something that happened on the court during a tournament this past weekend.
“During the game on Saturday night, the girl with the #6 jersey that was on the opposing team that was guarding (Our Player) was talking quite a bit of “smack” on the court. Some “smack talk” is expected and can be okay on the court if it’s appropriate but an 11-year old girl calling (Our Player) a “whore” does not quite fall in that category. (Our Player) had no idea what that meant (thank goodness since she really might have decked her right there on the court, had she known) but when I mentioned it to another mom on Sunday morning she said that her daughter had mentioned that that team had apparently been talking rough throughout the game Saturday night.
I know that kind of thing is going to happen sometimes and we have talked about it a lot since the game, but I don’t want an experience like that to affect our girls in a negative way. I would hate for any of the others girls to have been called something similar and be struggling with it.”
The Smack talker tainted an otherwise pleasant competitive tournament . . . Sadly, the organizers of the Tournament were largely unresponsive to this news . . . and the end of the story is that our team will not likely participate in future tournaments coordinated by this organization.
How could this play out in YOUR business?
Would you allow anyone associated with your organization to smack talk other employees or customers?
How would YOU handle it?
Here in the South, we have a way of dealing with “Smack Talkers”
“Bless your Heart!”
as we move away . . .
🙂