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How to Disagree With Your Boss
Tweet Share on Facebook March 23, 2009 Comment (84)A reader at Ask a Manager recently wrote to me about a situation where she felt her boss was asking her to do something utterly nonsensical.
Often in this situation, people have one or more bad reactions: They stew about silently, or they just disregard the boss's instructions.
Neither of these is a good option. If you disagree with your boss, you should offer up your own viewpoint. (Disclaimer: This assumes your boss is sane and reasonable, not a tyrant or a lunatic. If she's one of those, that's a different topic.) Often, workplace disagreements arise when two people have different pieces of information about something. It's possible that you know something your boss doesn't know. Figure out what that might be, tell her, and see if that changes anything. At the same time, be open to new information she might give you that might change your own viewpoint.
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Almost Succeeding But Not Quite Failing
Tweet Share on Facebook March 20, 2009 Comment (2)Even the most successful careers can be dotted by failures. It is axiomatic that we learn from setbacks far more than from victories. The person who has never received the career equivalent of a stomach punch may be less prepared to deal with adversity.
With a conventional failure, one fails, regroups, and then moves on. But what of that territory between success and failure which gives the benefits of neither? A clear-cut failure tells you what doesn’t work and jars you toward other endeavors or approaches. The not-quite success yet not-quite failure, however, may leave just enough hope to keep you mired in what is really a hopeless effort.
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Why We Laugh When a Joke's Not Funny, and Other New Job Lessons
Tweet Share on Facebook March 19, 2009 Comment (6)Two lemons were in the shower. The first one said, “Pass me the soap.” The second one said, “What do you think I am? A typewriter?”
Ha! Ha! Ha! Excuse me while I wipe the tears of mirth from my eyes. Isn’t that the funniest joke you’ve ever heard in your life? No? (Note to my younger readers: A typewriter is a keyboard where you type directly onto paper. Isn’t that the strangest thing you’ve ever heard of in your life?)
Well, back in the dark ages when I was in high school, this was a favorite joke of mine and my friends. We found it hilarious. Not the joke itself, mind you, but watching how people would try diligently to figure out what was so funny about it. If you told it in a group where most everyone was in on it, you could almost guarantee that the new “victims” would laugh at it.
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The Best Career Path Has Options
Tweet Share on Facebook March 19, 2009 Comment (2)One of the things I often hear in my work helping people find careers that light them up is a feeling of being trapped. They have a goal they want to reach, a dream they want to achieve, but they don’t feel like they’re able to do it. Or, even worse, they just feel flat out stuck in an unpleasant situation they want to change.
That’s an incredibly disempowering feeling. It’s stressful, and it feels hopeless. It drains their energy. And often, it’s also completely untrue.
If you find yourself feeling trapped or stuck, ask yourself, “What are my options?” Go ahead and start writing them down. Brainstorm and make a laundry list. Once you have written down the possibilities that came to mind immediately, take it one step further. Say, “OK, now, if none of those was a possibility, what else could I do? How else could I reach my goal?” Tape your list to the wall where you can see it and keep adding ideas as they pop up.
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How to Hold On To The Job You Have
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2009 Comment (2)Take a look at any news source these days and you’ll be smacked in the face with the latest unemployment figures.
They continue to go in the wrong direction (up), making it hard not to get trapped in the general atmosphere of free-floating fear. Pundits throwing out words like “depression” and “apocalypse” don’t help.
But you are only one person. You only need to hold on to one job (or, if you’re a moonlighter, two). Your task then is to be such a rock-solid member of the team, and do such superior work, that you keep that job.
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Letter to All the New Green Company CEOs
Tweet Share on Facebook March 17, 2009 Comment (2)In my spare time, I mentor or coach entrepreneurs who are involved in early stage or startups. It’s fun for me, helpful for them, I hope. There is nothing like the thrill of helping someone build a new business.
There are green companies being formed now by passionate people who believe in their new product and/or service. Some are going to make it and some won’t.
I have a couple of tips for them as they embark on their startup adventure. Here's a classic new green entrepreneur situation: The company's product is great and will revolutionize their niche market. It’s been patented, they can demonstrate that it saves money, and it provides real ecological benefits. The challenge is making sales before the cash runs out.
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How to Handle Hypocrites at Work
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2009 Comment (5)At some point or another, we all go back on something we've said. Does that makes us "bad" people? No. But it does make us hypocrites. A hypocrite, according to Webster's Dictionary, is a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings.
I've always had a hard time with hypocrites. Perhaps it's because I hold myself to a ridiculously unachievable standard. Whatever the case, I know I'm not the only one gets ticked off when people go back on their word and step all over a previous sentiment. Just glance around the office and I'm sure you'll see plenty of offenders.
Take Joan, for example. She always got along with her cubemate Tammy. But last month they started to experience a lot of tension. Joan ended up distancing herself a bit and started having lunch with Margaret. One random day, Joan and Tammy met up accidentally in the office cafeteria and exchanged a few laughs. At the time, Margaret happened to be strolling by. -
4 Reasons to Beware the Too-Nice Manager
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2009 Comment (4)Of all the qualities you don't want in a manager, here's one that you might not have thought about: overly nice.
If you have a boss who is too nice--one who allows her desire to be nice, or liked, to control the way she does business--you'll find the following:- The boss won't make hard decisions or have hard conversations. One common way this plays out is in managers who won’t address performance problems or fire underperformers. But it plays out in other ways as well. For example, a manager who's afraid of conflict may hesitate to make necessary course corrections mid-way through a project, but then be unhappy with your final product. Good managers know that their job is to solve problems, not avoid them, and that they can't value preserving harmony or avoiding tough conversations above all else.
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How E-mail Becomes Dangerous
Tweet Share on Facebook March 13, 2009 Comment (2)There are three common categories of E-mail: “Convenient,” “Questionable,” and “Exhibit A.”
Convenient E-Mail appropriately matches the subject with the tone. This means it is not used to announce layoffs, propose marriage, or discuss any sensitive topic for which face-to-face communication or, at the very least, telephonic contact, is needed. Convenient E-Mail is great for setting up meetings or conveying reports.
It can also be a nifty way to catch up with friends, although if that is done too often, Convenient E-Mail can become…Questionable E-Mail.
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Could This Recession Be a Gift For Your Career?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 12, 2009 Comment (2)I’m not a big fan of experiencing difficult times, but sometimes that’s exactly what we need. Sometimes it takes a personal earthquake to shake us out of the rut of habit, flawed assumptions, and inertia that is keeping us on a track that is no longer (or maybe never was) right for us.
In my most recent podcast, I interviewed Erik Weihenmayer, a blind climber who summitted Mount Everest in 2001. Erik is a best-selling author, a motivational speaker, and has turned overcoming adversity into an art form. His most recent book, The Adversity Advantage (co-authored with Dr. Paul Stoltz), focuses on how to use adversity to propel you forward.
As we talked about how to deal with the adversity that so many people are facing right now, Erik noted: “Sometimes these tough times are the best times to make a change in our life. Sometimes the adversity that we face is the catalyst that we need to do it.”
