Working smarter: Turn an angry boss into a teacher
It happens. Your boss, red-faced and scowling, strides toward your desk—clutching the report you stayed late yesterday to finish. How to calm the tension? Remember this 4-A approach:
Category: People Skills
‘Dumb boss’ poll: Recognize anyone?
Here are a few highlights from an ABC News web poll a few years back that asked readers for the worst thing a boss ever told them:
Help your boss unplug on vacation
You can’t force your boss to unplug or forget about work while on vacation, but you can make it easier for him (and you) with this plan:
Don’t let merger or downsizing squeeze you out
Don’t allow the uncertainty of a merger and/or layoffs freeze your career. While the powers that be decide who stays and who goes, stake your claim to the position you want and they need.
Extend a helping hand to your workplace rival
Take a lesson from successful execs and create an alliance with another admin pro you consider a competitor.
To forgive is divine … and productive
Want to step up your productivity by 25 percent? Simply forgive someone—the boss, a co-worker, a friend—for whatever “evil” he or she has done you.
Being micromanaged? Let’s talk
If your boss’s micromanagement interferes with your ability to do your job, quit casting yourself as a victim. You can’t change the boss, but you can influence many of the situations you face, says Harry Chambers, a trainer and author of My Way or the Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide.
Help new employees start on a good foot
Give new employees a running start at their jobs, with these little-noticed but much-appreciated assists.
Shh! Keep your personal life private
You know best about your boss, your co-workers and your workplace’s culture, but, in general, don’t talk about your personal life in the office when it’s unnecessary, unflattering or confidential.
Crystallize the job before you start
Launching into an assignment before you’re absolutely sure what the boss wants just wastes your effort … and the boss’s time.