This week I observed something that triggered me.
I was watching a recording of a training video and I noticed that the presenter had spelled one of the words incorrectly on the flipchart.
I couldn’t see the message that he received, however he stopped his presentation to address the person who had pointed out the spelling error.
Whilst he said “thank you” for pointing it out, he also mentioned that he was dyslexic and didn’t learn to read until he was in his mid twenties.
As a result, he spells differently to the rest of us. (A bit of humour.)
This triggered me because I didn’t think it was necessary to point out the error.
If you see a spelling mistake and you know how to spell the word correctly, in my opinion, just write it down correctly.
As a presenter, I can sometimes get words mixed up on the whiteboard and I’ve felt the embarrassment of someone pointing it out, especially when the word looks similar to the correct spelling, for example, “recieve”.
It might be spelt incorrectly, but it’s clear what the word is.
In fact, studies have shown that we really only need a few letters of words to actually work out the word.
Anyway, my point – there are times when being right can quickly turn into being righteous.
As Denis Waitley says, “If you have the choice, and you always do, to be kind or to be right, choose kind.”
One way you can be kind and correct a mistake is if you see that a date is incorrect.
Thank you to Bec for taking the time to let me know that the landing page for people to sign up for next Tuesday’s free training, 3 Steps to Reclaim Freedom in Business had the wrong day but correct date in the form. The correct day is Tuesday 12th March.
I didn’t pick up the error and I didn’t know how to change it on the web and my developer is away at a conference. A couple of reminders there for me:
- Be more thorough with my reviews
- Don’t leave things until the last minute.
And lucky for me, my developer was kind enough to fix it within a few minutes of my request. Thank you Paul.
I’m curious, what would you do? Would you point out the spelling mistake?
Would you take the time to provide feedback when the day and date don’t match the calendar? As the reader you won’t know which is correct and which is incorrect? It could be either the day or the date.
Or am I making a big deal over nothing?
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