Fierce

The name of the restaurant may not be long for this earth, but The Man may survive.

I remember going with my daughter Jennifer to Dixie’s BBQ for lunch. Dixie’s has the best BBQ in western Washington. Ask anyone. It’s official.

The proprietor visits each table and asks, “Have you met ‘The Man’?”

“The Man” is the seriously hot hot sauce for which Dixie’s is famous.

“Lay it on us,” we said.

Within seconds, two women of reasonably professional demeanor were transformed into bleary-eyed, runny-nosed, red-blotched, mascara-streaked, ugly-faced, broken-down, beggin’-for-mercy, cryin’-for-Mama, fixin’-to-die, hiccupping lumps of humanity.

Of humility.

There was no way out but through. Sans dignity.

And if you’ve never heard a grown child of yours whisper, “Help me,” it’s unnerving, let me tell you.

Particularly when you yourself expect your last vision to be the ceiling of a BBQ shack in Bellevue, Washington.

Outside in the parking lot, still gasping, there were three things for which I had a new appreciation:

1. The line “I once was blind, but now I see.”

2. If your mouth is on fire, do not attempt to quench it with soda pop.

3. Not all transformation is pleasant.

I have met “The Man,” lived to tell about it, and most of the lining of my mouth has regenerated.

If it’s instant transformation you’re after, go to Dixie’s BBQ. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

A less painful, though no less difficult, step would be to transform how you bring yourself and others into a conversation and out of a conversation.

That’s what “fierce” is about.

Source: Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott