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Fall 2003 • page 28 WAGNER How To Be A Fearless Employee confident manner, serving on committees and seeing the world from the point of view of their executive decision–makers. Doing a great job is not sufficient for influence. Many good people shy away from the concept because they see it only as a negative, cynical, manipulative behavior. Influence is sales is leadership is teaching: The ability to get other people to change their behavior the way you want. This means building rapport, having empathy for the other person’s point of view and learning their story. It also means being precise and timely in your communication and providing the data in the other person’s preferred learning style. Finally, it means being able to act and take some chances. CREATE COMPELLING FUTURES FOR THEMSELVES AND OTHERS One of the best and healthiest ways to reduce stress during hard times is to focus on the better future in your personal and professional lives. Fearless employees consider that even traumatic events are temporary; they rationalize away the bad today and focus on the good coming tomorrow. According to Martin Seligman, PhD, who specializes in the study of optimism, although pessimists are more accurate in their assessment of the current situation, they get stuck because they don’t see potential. My experience is that even in very bad times the fearless employee will consider today’s problems as transient, while they act to evolve the situation and themselves. Is there a time to jump ship? Hopefully, you leave on your own terms before you are pushed out. However, here are six warning signs that it is time to leave. 1. You have become bitter. Keep referring to past problems, even when they are resolved. Constant sarcasm. Discount success and positive actions of institution and others. Criticize employees in front of others. You are now one of the people poisoning the well. This is a red flag—time to leave! 2. You have stopped learning. Refuse to go to classes or workshops unless the company pays for it and makes you go. Refuse to use new technology. Do not read or study Business & Finance Division Bulletin • number 124 outside your job. The world is changing too fast for you not to invest in new learning. 3. You no longer contribute at a management level to the workplace. You go through the motions. Rely on past accomplishments and the momentum of seniority. Are you bringing your full mind to solving problems and making things better? 4. You are working for someone who is a substance abuser or who manifests emotionally chaotic behavior. The longer you work for this damaged person, the more likely you will distort your own behavior to survive. 5. You are asked to lie, cheat, steal or violate your value system. If your institution is shifting their strategic plan away from your core values, can you stay without sabotaging productivity or making yourself sick. 6. Your health is being affected by the stress of the job. Auto–immune diseases, stomach aches, headaches, back aches, physical pain, lingering illness, exhaustion, increased sick days. Does your workplace promote martyrdom? I have kept in touch with most of the people from the original study. Most of them have weathered numerous shifts in their companies, industries and communities successfully. And they are all still productive, pleasant people who are willing to fire their one customer if the need arises. PAT WAGNER Pat Wagner of Pattern Research has written for a variety of regional and national publications and has a liberal arts degree in performance and written communications. She creates and presents good–humored and practical workplace programs on personnel, management and leadership as well as consults and writes on related topics. www.sla.org
OUTOF THEBOX WILLIAM CROWLEY Competitive Analysis Technologies Business & Finance Division Bulletin • Number 124 Fall 2003 USING FOIA FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE With great excitement the Bulletin editorial staff announces a new column called “Out of the Box”. Each issue, “Out of the Box” will feature an article authored by an SLA member not in the Business & Finance Division. Topics chosen for the column will be of general relevance to our membership and an interesting representation of SLA authors. From time-to-time business and finance researchers receive research requests with which they are not familiar. This column will be a resource for topics outside of our B&F box. If you are interested in recommending an author for future columns, please contact the Bulletin editor at vaplatt@willamette.com INTRODUCTION Although freedom of information laws have existed since 1766, when Sweden passed its Freedom of the Press Act, the last 10 years saw an unprecedented number of states adopting access to information legislation. The (US) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted in 1966, and took effect on July 4, 1967. The FOIA firmly established an effective statutory right of public access to executive branch information in the federal government. 1 Since that time all US federal, state, county and city government agencies have enacted similar legislation.
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