Regardless of you agreeing with me or not, the fact of the matter is that those who master the corporate ass kissing techniques, climb up the ladder faster. And those who find ass kissing techniques difficult, often will end up on the losing end. Here are some steps in kissing your way to the top. Have fun it. :-)
- Never talk bad about the current boss to anyone! You never know who’s listening and you never know who will say something.
- Never, ever confide personal details about yourself to anyone at work. Even the most trusted coworker will turn around and blab his mouth all over the place.
- Never, ever make friends at work! Once you’ve kissed your way to the top, you may end up having to fire some of these people. It’s a lot less painless if you’ve kept your distance. Read the rest of this entry »
Or lack of it :-). Well, this is a bigger problem than you might think—jerks and bullies in the workplace. Research shows that they not only hinder retention (and recruiting) but also raise levels of client churn, damage reputations, and diminish the confidence of the work-public.
Companies that harbor jerks may also suffer from reduced levels of creativity and innovation, as well as impaired or dysfunctional cooperation, within and outside the organization. That is no small matter in an increasingly networked world.
Companies should take specific and interrelated steps to root out jerks and bullies and build a more civilized workplace. But then again many of these companies are run by jerks and bullies, so there!
We run to angry people all the time. Whether your are in Customer Service and dealing with angry customers or school administrators dealing with angry parents, handling an angry person and being able to lead them to a more calm — and logical — state can be a very desired skill.
The most common mistake that people make is to assume that when someone is out of control, we should calm our voices so that they calm down too. The assumption is that the other person will match us and a calm and logical conversation can then take place. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. Instead, because of the calm demeanor, the complainant doesn’t feel heard. Their rationale is that since the listener is not as outraged as they are, they must not have been listening or they don’t believe what was shared. The result is no trust so the person remains angry and outraged.
A better approach is called “Pace and Lead”. The first step is to match the complainant’s emotional intensity. This is not agreeing with the person. This is simply responding with the same emotions that are being presented. If a person is complaining that the delivery person scratched the new dryer as they installed it and was outraged, the customer service rep would respond in an outraged fashion: “They what?!? You’ve got to be kidding! If that happened, it’s unacceptable!!” This is pacing. After matching the emotional intensity, the rep would begin to, slowly, de-escalate the intensity to a normal level, leading the complainant to a state that is more productive for dealing with the problem. This is leading. If at first the representative tries to lead, but the complainant fails to follow, the rep would simply raise the intensity level again and then try to lead the complainant back down again. This is repeated until successful. I’ve dealt with irate individuals in this fashion and am usually able to have them down to a productive level within 2 – 3 minutes.
This approach allows a complainant to feel heard and provides the best way to reach a calm and logical state quickly.
