When I hear this or think of it today, somehow, I cannot get away from the authority that I so deeply hated as a kid. It wasn’t the people representing the authority but the authority itself. The coach, the teacher, the principal, the parents, the boss would too often preface their dominance, their upper hand, their command with, “LIKE IT OR NOT” you must do it. Didn’t matter what the ‘it’ was, like it or not you had to do it. And now that I am older than dirt, I’m still not a fan of it.
But, as a Career Coach, someone that has influence over a young mind with only the best of intentions, I find myself saying, “like it or not” you need to, you have to, you must do it and although I know that my sense of direction is both accurate and practical to help my students and clients achieve their goals, I see ‘like it or not’ from a very different perspective. I only hope my clients do as well.
Influence is a major responsibility. Having the power to impact someone is not to be taken lightly. You can really add value to someone’s life but if we misuse ‘like it or not’, we can hurt someone too. I work hard and use ‘like it or not’ strategically and with purpose. My success, our success is based on TRUST and that must be earned.
Part of my job is assessing what’s broken, identifying the problem and then provide solutions to fix it. Before I push my guidance on clients, I make sure that there is a mutual understanding that the solution requires time and work, so when I do offer, ‘like it or not’ they recognize where it’s coming from and trust me enough to, at the very least explore the suggestions I am proposing so when they do see improvement and better results, they like it.
