A young business development professional was recently on the receiving end of an angry response from a prospective client. He was shocked by the defensive and angry outburst of the executive. After all, he just wanted to offer a possible solution to the company’s problems. The young professional immediately assumed that he had done something wrong. Not necessarily. Outbursts of anger says more about the person blowing up, than it does about you.
Seth Godin writes, “Just because he’s angry doesn’t mean he’s right or well informed.” When someone gets you back on your heels with their outburst of emotion, it’s easy to feel you’ve done something wrong to provoke them. Before you back off and fall all over yourself offering apologies, stop and think. It just might be that you’re right or got too close to the truth.