In any type of situation, we can categorize the people we encounter into three different kinds of people, each of whom we have to interact in a certain way.
Maybe you are a manager at your company who has to make a tough decision. Maybe you are a politician proposing a new bill. A celebrity with a controversial statement. Or maybe you are an ordinary person who made a questionable life choice.
Whichever it is, the people around you will react and be affected whether or not they are meant to be. So, how do you deal with them?
There are people who immediately react and make hasty conclusions.
Whatever our statements and actions in a particular situation may be, there will always be people whose first instinct is to react simply by taking things at face value. These are people who often make hasty conclusions are most of the time not open to any opinions aside from their own.
Perhaps the most common example of this scenario is how the public reacts with tidbits of news and gossip about celebrities. We often comment on matters we are not necessarily involved in and make conclusions about the person.
The best way to address these kinds of people is to leave them with a deeper question in the hopes of prompting them to be open to new information, to think more critically, and to reevaluate their stance. The more factors there are in any given situation, the more complicated it becomes and thus harder to make a generalized conclusion.
There are those who follow the voice of the majority.
The first kind of people are typically very vocal about their opinions and are the first to speak up. This leads to the tendency of more people listening to them. These people are the ones who usually do not have strong personal opinions on the situation, and therefore listen to everyone else around them.
They are easily influenced by those with strong feelings and especially if these feelings and opinions are carried by the majority. People without their own thoughts seek the safety of numbers, so they tend to gravitate towards what most others are saying.
When you show them that there is an intrinsic and essential value in the responsibility of forming and voicing out their own thoughts, that you value what they have to add to the conversation, then they will feel empowered and become more proactive in sharing their independent thoughts.
Then there are those people who seek answers and question everything.
These are the people who find out everything they can about the situation, and intricately analyzing them before they form their opinion. They are resourceful, and are not afraid to ask questions in order to understand things better.
Even then, they usually do not form concrete opinions or make decisions on most matters until they have something strong enough to convince them, usually by their own personal experience. Simply put, other people’s experiences and takes from a situation are not enough for them- they need to experience things first hand in order to be convinced.
As much as possible, allow them the freedom to gain and go through these relevant and meaningful experiences. Not only will it help them form their concrete thoughts but will also add value to their lives by gaining more experiences and learning from these experiences.
Ultimately, we wish that everyone we encounter belongs to the third category. After all, that would make our lives easier. But unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world.
So, we have to do our best to make the most out of every situation and successfully interact with all the people that are involved. This way, we have the opportunity for things to turn out better for ourselves and for everyone else.