Let’s put it all together into a coherent plan of attack.
Absolutely the very first thing you need to do, regardless of your work situation, is to listen to what your boss says. You need to understand how your boss thinks and what pushes his buttons. What’s important to him? With some bosses, it’s all about the power. With others, all they want is a paycheck. With some, it’s security and an employee’s incompetence could jeopardize that security, which is what might cause the boss to lash out. Whatever the reason, you need to listen to your boss and observe his actions in order to figure out how to deal with him.
Once you’ve done that, everything that comes next is dependent on what you’ve just learned. If it turns out that your boss is on a power trip, you might need to pull out the challenge. Tell him that you’d like a chance to do it YOUR way and if it doesn’t work, you’ll leave or do whatever he wants. This can give him a lot of power over you if he’s right and most likely, he’ll take you up on your offer.
If you’re boss seems insecure, get to know him as a person. Talk about his family. Ask him what his interests are. Appeal to him as a fellow human being rather than as an employee. Some people won’t respond to this, but unless the guy is an absolute monster, there is a good chance that he’ll come around.
Whatever you find out from listening, don’t argue with your boss. It’s not going to lead anywhere good. Put together a rational plan of discussion. Ask questions. Get to the bottom of what it is your boss REALLY wants.
Ultimately, this comes down to developing people skills. If most people would just stop and think before they opened their mouths, most problems could be avoided.
However, if the relationship with your boss has already reached the point of no return, you need to know what your worker’s rights are and how to get the most out of them.
This site will do it: Work Laws Exposed
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I’m going to cover how to be a good listener.
There is a reason why we have two ears and only one mouth. It’s so that we can listen more than we talk. We never learn things when we speak because what comes out of our mouths are things we already know. However, when we listen, we can learn an awful lot.
Okay, so why do we want to be a good listener as far as our boss is concerned? There are several reasons, many relating to some of the things we’ve already discussed in this series.
For starters, by listening to what your boss says, you get an insight into his actual character. People say certain things depending on the kind of person they are. A defensive person will act one way when confronted. An irrational person will act another way. Learn to hear what your boss is saying so that you can get an idea of what kind of person they are. That is your foundation for dealing with your boss further down the road.
Let’s now take the tactic of getting your boss to agree with you. In order to do this, you need to find out what is weak spots are, assuming he has any. The only way to do this is to listen to what he says. For example, let’s say a weakness of your boss is that he’s getting close to retirement and says things like “I’m 5 years from a gold watch. I don’t need to have to deal with idiots like you.” Most people will focus on the fact that they were just called an idiot. YOU should focus on that he is looking forward to retirement and find a way to appeal to that side. You can only do that by listening.
In throwing down the challenge, prior to this, your boss probably gave you all the reasons why things have to be done HIS way. In order to counter this, you have to listen to what those reasons are. That way, it gives you the ammo you need to write out your counter proposal.
Bottom line is this. If you don’t listen, you can’t develop a plan of attack for winning your boss over.
We’re going to go over admitting your mistakes.
Reverse psychology is a great thing and it works. In fact, it’s so simple, this tactic doesn’t need much explanation at all.
The normal course of events between a boss and an employee usually goes something like this.
Boss: You really screwed that up!
Employee: I did not. It wasn’t my fault!
Boss: Then whose fault was it?
Employee: The specs were all wrong!
And it continues on and on until eventually, the employee starts blaming the mailman.
Instead, try this.
Boss: You really screwed that up!
Employee: You’re right sir. I did. It was my fault and I promise I’ll do better next time.
And then present a list of ideas of how to keep from making those mistakes again.
Your boss will be standing there dumbfounded. He won’t know what to say to you in response.
Why? Because he will have been expecting you to make excuses. Now, his predetermined speech that he had in his head went out the window because the conversation didn’t go as he planned.
This is a great way to disarm your boss.
Let’s go over how to throw down the challenge.
This takes a lot of guts and can blow up in your face. But…if it works, you’ll finally get the piece at the job that you have always wanted. Yeah, it’s kind of an all or nothing proposition, but as a last ditch effort, it can pull your backside out of the fire.
1. Preparation – First thing you have to do is prepare. Let’s say you want to implement a new security protocol. What you need to do is completely map out the plan. You need to be able to walk into your bosses office and say “here it is” and present it with confidence. Make it obvious that you’ve really worked hard on it.
2. Throw Down The Challenge – Tell you boss that IF he allows you to go ahead with this plan and it doesn’t work out, you’ll leave. You won’t give your boss any problems and you’ll go quietly.
Now, here’s what you need to understand about this situation and when to use this tactic.
At this stage, your boss should be pretty close to actually firing you or driving you crazy enough to leave, so while it is an all or nothing proposition, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. You’re one foot out the door either way anyway. So this is your hail Mary.
Believe it or not…it works more times than it doesn’t IF you have your plan well thought out.
In other words…if you don’t REALLY know your job…don’t try this.
And if the ax is about to fall, you might want to check out this site:
Work Laws Exposed
Let’s go over how to get your boss to agree with you.
Admittedly, this takes some skill, and some bosses are never going to admit you’re right no matter what you say or do. You need to understand this going in. However, these tactics might just give you a fighting chance with the boss who at least has half a heart and isn’t totally insane.
1. Do Your Homework – The first thing you have to do is understand the nature of the work related task and the problem surrounding it. The more information you have, the better armed you will be. No, you can’t fake this…which means…you have to know your job. If you don’t, you might be better off leaving in the first place.
2. Think Like Your Boss – Okay, this is not easy for some people. But you have to get inside of the head of your boss. You need to understand what makes him tick. Why does he think like he does? Why does he run the office the way he does? Find out what’s important to him. Play to his wants and desires and then turn them around to get what YOU want.
3. Prepare For No – Be prepared for your boss to say no. It’s going to happen. Not every idea you come up with is going to be a winner. Accept his no professionally and don’t be confrontational about it.
Ultimately, what this is going to do, regardless of how it turns out is that it’s going to help diffuse the volatile relationship that you two have. Do this enough and you just might find that things start to get back to normal. That’s of course if they ever were.
If this fails and it looks like the ax is going to fall or you just can’t hack the job anymore, check out the site below to find out how you can make the best of a bad situation.
Undercover Lawyer
