June 20, 2006Focusing the Boss
Not long after turning 40 I grew a backbone. It was like I suddenly lost my fear of asking for what I needed, wanted, or in disagreeing with someone. The new problem was, without those 40 years of practice, I did not have the skills to speak up appropriately. I attended one of your seminars, purchased several of the Power Phrase books, decided I agreed with your philosophy and began implementing it in my life. Here is an example of how it worked in my office.
Our corporate president is a very intelligent man but often speaks quickly and in circles. He means well as he uses these conversations to try and teach us as much as possible in the least amount of time. However, I cannot count the number of times I went into his office for clarification on what he wanted done and came out even more confused than when I went in.
This was happening to co-workers as well and since I am the office manager, I felt the need to address the situation. I practiced ways to speak up based on previous encounters and the next time a situation arose, I simply stated, ‘If you will slow down and tell me exactly what you want, I will be happy to get it done for you.’ As simple as this sounds, it worked wonderfully. His next answer was succinct and to the point. We accomplished the project with much less stress on all of us and my coworkers were as thrilled as I was.
One of the great things about Speaking Strong is that it can be done politely but firmly and in very few words.
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I am part of many meetings, task force assignments, focus groups, etc. What I have found invaluable, when the conversation runs in circles and so many ideas are tossed back and forth, is to say “So the bottomline is…..” or “What’s the bottomline on this?” It works wonders and countless times fellow employees have said “Thank you, I had no idea what they wanted and what was the plan.”
Comment by Pearl Coronado — June 21, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
Great point. Thanks Pearl!
Comment by merylrunion — June 26, 2006 @ 3:00 pm