You have what you believe is an important thought to share with management. You're concerned though that management may dislike your message. How do you assess how safe it is to share your thought with management? It's certainly perilous if management regularly scowls, aims their finger at you and fires words such as: "You have no right to … [Read more...]
Manager is Junior Engineering
My friend Mitch was telling me this morning more about how his company was losing hundreds of millions of dollars because they couldn't execute their plans (see my earlier post Key Person Won't Participate). He mentioned that he had a one-on-one meeting with his manager to discuss how his work would drastically alter one-third of their business … [Read more...]
Problems: Cope, Manage or Solve?
When faced with a problem, I suggest considering three strategies: Coping Managing Solving Let's apply the strategies to the situation where you have a new pet who defecates in your house. You (I hope) don't like poop on the floors of your house. You could cope with the problem by cleaning up the poop. Your strategy is to deal with … [Read more...]
You’re Too Good of a Speaker
"You're too good of a speaker." I've heard those words and they depressed me. Now they put a smile on my face. I realize now that my friends, all excellent technicians, were telling me that they preferred a complex presentation that was a little rough around the edges—just like the world they lived in I had a difficult transition from … [Read more...]
Coping with a Double Bind
In my last post , I posed the question, "What coping strategies are better than ambivalence and apathy (in a double bind situation)?" There is nothing wrong with being ambivalent or apathetic about an environment that constantly puts you in a double bind. These coping strategies are reasonable and always available. My question was intended to … [Read more...]