People fear what they don’t understand and hate it
This is very difficult when you’re into something remarkable you’re bound to bring ideas, solutions and even general way of conveying yourself in a different way. Bad if you’re misunderstood, even worst if you’re not understood. People fear what they don’t understand and hate it. You might not always have the time or maybe you even don’t want to explain yourself. If you bring a change to a table, people will react. The natural reaction to the unknown is fear and that brings lot of defensiveness in reaction.
I’m particularly “guilty” of bringing a lot of change to the business as well as my own personal life. Inevitably I brought a lot of change to the way people do work and lives. I’m trying like crazy to explain some of the things that I’m doing and the rationale behind it but it doesn’t always work that well. Different people would expect different reasons. Leaving it all down to a tweet every now and then doesn’t do it. Other than speaking to people who otherwise might misjudge you there’s no way to manage expectations.
But you have to choose your circles and the battles as you can’t speak with everyone. The crowd of people sitting on the back benches who simply won’t hear what you’re saying is always greater than anyone can manage. Therefore there’s a dillema. You don’t want to keep things under the wraps and you don’t want to surprise people too often.