People are more in touch with their subconscious than you might think. They will undoubtedly deny this because they are not consciously consciuos of their subconscious — or at least they don’t think they are! Sometimes I have to work with people or BPO companies who just won’t cooperate. It is difficult to just fire them and move on to another company who is relatively “unknown” to me in terms of their reliability. So sometimes, I decide that it is better to crack the whip a bit, and give a mixture of incentives and penalties for good or bad behavior.
The most common problem is that someone refuses to follow directions or get something done in a reasonable amount of time. They are busy with other commitments, or just plain stubborn. I have learned to be patient, but “overpatience” is a liability, not a virtue. Irresponsible people systematically take advantage of you if you are too lenient in a business relationship.
The irony or the secret is, that when I search for replacements, and really put time into my search — my current service providers seem to tune into that and feel it. They can sense that they will be replaced soon if they don’t shape up. There is no better way to instill this feeling than shopping around.
If you are from India or the Philippines, there is this great American song from the 60’s that was many people’s favorites. It was a motown hit called, “Shop Around”. It is about a mother who told her son that he had better shop around for a good bride, and not to marry the first pretty girl who he found. She warned him that if he didn’t find a girl who really loved him, that he would be very sad in the long run. You can watch this Smokey Robinson song on youtube.com.
“Mama always said you better show around” — Smokey Robinson