The Perils of Trying to Be Popular Your Employees I know, sounds ridiculous. If people hate you, you can’t get their cooperation, you can’t motivate them, they won’t help with reaching the unit’s goals and frankly, it makes for an unpleasant and stressful work place. So there are lots of good reasons why you want to be popular with your employees. But in a management position, you sometimes need to make decisions which aren’t popular wi...

Do You Need to be Likable to Your Employees? The dilemma set out in the previous post is whether, as a new supervisor, you should supervise a change to the work that everyone in your group wanted. You wanted to be likable and under pressure from Candice, your former colleague, now employee, you okayed the change. Candice drops by the next week. Candice: Hey, Mia. We released to the field three weeks earlier than we ever have. Looks like the chang...

Is It Better to Be Respected or Liked as a Supervisor? So, a promotion. Well done. You have taken over your old boss Albert’s job. You will now be supervisor to staff who, until you got this new job, were your colleagues. Honestly, this is a tough way to start in management. I think it’s actually easier to supervise people you don’t know in your first supervision job. But a promotion is a promotion and there is the whole thing about gift ho...

Costs of Taking a Stand Sometimes, you must speak up to maintain self-worth. In previous posts, we’ve discussed how to do that. However, no matter how successfully you pilot through your initial conversation, there will be costs which you need to prepare for and accept as part and parcel of deciding to speak out. Costs you might face Depends on your boss and how open your company is to change. The following list is generally in order of severit...

How to Take a Stand or Defy Convention Whether you take a stand on something is entirely up to you. Only you can decide that. But howyou defy convention can lower or increase the chances of continuing to earn a pay check. Plan Don`t do a spur of the moment, blow your gasket thing. It`s too important. Take a moment to think through what to say. Be clear. Sometimes, moral outrage can be diffuse. What exactly is bothering you? Is it the problem or t...

Being Quiet Can Do You In

Being Quiet Can Do You In As discussed in the last post, being extroverted rather than introverted is more likely to reap the rewards companies have to offer. Even if you are not interested in money or promotions, being too quiet can still cause you problems. YOU are in a meeting with your boss, Jeff, and a colleague, Narita. A limited amount of extra research money has become available and Jeff will decide whether YOUR project or Narit...

Can You Be Successful if You’re Shy?

Can You Be Successful if You’re Shy? Business is the land of the extrovert, not for the shy. It is estimated that 75% of the work population are extroverts. I have some trouble with this stat. Seventy-five percent of the people I know aren’t extroverts. But I can round this square if I amend the statement slightly to say that 75% of the people act extroverted in the work place. Why would a reserved person fake extroversion at work? ...

How to How to Combine Team and Career Goals
Groupthink for Employees / August 16, 2021

How to How to Combine Team and Career Goals In my post, When Not to Take One for the Team, YOU were told that you had to take one for the team by not attending a conference you really want. You might have felt that, in that post, you gave into your boss Gwen’s insistence too easily. But as I pointed out in Downsides of Refusing to Take One for the Team, you can pay a price in your career goals for refusing to accept the decision and s...

Downsides of Declining to Take One for the Team
Groupthink for Employees / August 9, 2021

Downsides of Declining to Take One for the Team In the previous post, YOU made your case for going to an important conference but were overruled by the boss. But YOU might feel that you didn’t fight hard enough. You might be right—more argument might make a difference. However, declining to give up could win you the battle but lose the war. Winning the battle but losing the war As I have mentioned in other posts, the pressure to get...

When Not to Offer to Take One for the Team
Groupthink for Employees / August 2, 2021

When Not to Offer to Take One for the Team As I covered in the previous post, taking one for the team is often the right way to go. But sometimes, you should not offer. When to stick to your guns and not offer to take the hit When this is very, very important to you and/or your career. Maybe you need to attend because you are actively scouting for a new job. Naturally, you can’t say that but you need to go. When you think it’s someb...