Managing Sticky Situations at Work

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Sticky Situations with Your Boss 39Invite the Other Person to Talk. Mark asked many questions fromthe orientation of curiosity to learn what he could do to improve. Hewas looking for specifics from Richard. Once Richard pointed out particularinteractions or behaviors that bothered him, Mark took responsibilityfor those actions without being defensive and moved on.Join Feeling with Fact. Mark said he was disappointed with theevaluation and frustrated with not knowing what to do. Mark is probablya Bold personality. He shared his feelings with Richard onlybecause he knew Richard was a Sympathetic. He did not dwell onthose feelings; instead, he stayed on his agenda, namely, to determinewhat he needed to do to improve.Resolve the Issue. In cases where you find yourself in the hot seat, ithelps for you to suggest changes. Mark told Richard what specifically hewould do and repeated the plan several times. When your behaviorneeds modifying, you are the best person to say what you will do.Others can make suggestions, but when you show initiative as Markdid, it looks as if you really want to improve. Mark also ended with a positivegoal: to increase his score to a 5 by next year. Finally, he solicitedhelp from Richard by asking him for input before the year-end review.STICKY SITUATION #3:YOUR BOSS ASKS YOU TO DO SOMETHING UNETHICALCynthia directs the Information Technology (IT) unit in one ofthe largest financial institutions in the country. Although sheruns a section, she’s way down the line as far as management isconcerned. After much work on the part of Cynthia and herteam, this institution incorporated many technological changesin recent years. The firm management, which consists of presidentsand vice presidents high up in the organization, lackedunderstanding of technology and did not trust it. They fearedinformation leaks. After years of workingwiththem,cajolingthem, assuring them of safeguards, and promising never to giveout information to outsiders that might compromise the institution,Cynthia won their support and trust.One late afternoon Cynthia’s boss, Steve (who functions manylayers beneath the firm management group with whom Cynthia’steam works), enters her office.Steve says, ‘‘I’m telling you this first. We are finally ready tolaunch the customer call center. As you know, Bentley and I have
40 Managing Sticky Situations at Workbeen working on this for months. It will save the bank millionsonce implemented, and it will be a feather in all our caps. But,we’ve got to get it out fast to beat the competition and gain theedge.’’‘‘Congratulations,’’ Cynthia says. ‘‘I know how much you’veworked to get this far.’’ She also knows Steve’s promotion dependson the success of this system. Bentley, his boss, made that real clearto him.He barely nods. ‘‘I want to get the call center in place before thenext performance review and before bonuses go out. That meanswe need to get cracking. We’ve only got three months. Think youcan do it?’’Cynthia draws in a breath. ‘‘What exactly will it entail?’’‘‘First of all we’ll have to reset the passwords so the people in thecall center will have access to our system. That’s step one which Ianticipate not taking too much time, right?’’Cynthia sits upright. ‘‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’’ Steve looksaway. ‘‘I promised firm management that we’d never allowaccess to outsiders without their input and approval. That waspart of the package they finally bought into. They would neverapprove opening up the system like this.’’Steve closes her office door. ‘‘You can’t say anything aboutthis to firm management. In fact, I’m ordering you as your superiornot to say anything to anyone about this. If we do not resetthe passwords, we can’t launch the system in three months. I figurewe can go in later and apologize. It’s always better to askfor forgiveness than permission, right? Firm management isoverly paranoid. There won’t be any security leaks. Don’t worryabout that. You’ve got to trust me. Everything will be fine. Oncethey see how many dollars we save and the share holders jumpingfor joy, they’ll never think twice about the possible securitybreaches.’’Cynthia felt as if she’d been hit with a cement boulder. ‘‘Ipromised firm management. They trust me. I can’t just do thisand not tell them. That’s exactly what I promised them I wouldnot do. If they found out, I’d be fired for sure.’’‘‘Listen, Cynthia, you have no choice. This call center is a donedeal. I don’t want to talk about it further.’’ He rises to leave.Cynthia gets up, too, not sure what she will do.
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Page 8: ContentsIllustrationsviiAcknowledgm
Page 12: AcknowledgmentsAs a disclaimer, all
Page 15 and 16: xiiIntroductionis the word that oft
Page 17 and 18: xivIntroduction4. You supervise a g
Page 20 and 21: Chapter 1The Say It Just Right (SIJ
Page 22 and 23: The Say It Just Right (SIJR) Model
Page 36 and 37: Chapter 2Personality OverlayAtthiss
Page 38 and 39: Personality Overlay 19BOLD PERSONAL
Page 40 and 41: Personality Overlay 21energy seems
Page 42 and 43: Larry is clearly a Technical person
Page 44 and 45: Personality Overlay 25‘‘John kn
Page 46: Personality Overlay 27Resolve the I
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Page 82 and 83: Chapter 5Sticky Situations with Cli
Page 84 and 85: Sticky Situations with Clients 65Un
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Page 96 and 97: Sticky Situations with Clients 77AN
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Page 100 and 101: Sticky Situations with Subordinates
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Sticky Situations with Subordinates
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Chapter 7Sticky Situations in Meeti
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Sticky Situations in Meetings 103to
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Chapter 8Sticky Romantic Situations
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Sticky Romantic Situations in the O
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Chapter 10Sticky Etiquette Situatio
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Her intent with this question was n
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202 Appendix 14. True5. False6. Fal
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204 Appendix 1Strategic interviewer
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206 Appendix 2360 By Design®—Des
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IndexAdjourning Stage in groups, 10
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Index 211hot seat, 35-39How Good a
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Index 213Teenage Daughter Is Busted
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