A good film called “Supersize Me” came out a while back that followed the life of a person who ate nothing but McD’s for all three meals of the day. Even though many of you have seen this movie, I find that very few people ever saw this experiment conducted at the end of the film. It is important for you to know what you are choking down next time you have the McCravings!
During the years that I sat in the “big chair” in my office, I was amazed at the worthless efforts in effective communication and dealing with problems that I observed in career professionals. I witnessed countless situations “come to a head” because people lacked the courage to deal with a sticky situation when it arises. Sometimes it was a matter of procrastination from a person who struggled with that in all areas of life. Other times, it was a an otherwise efficient individual hiding behind their desk because the needed action risked offending an associate. It was that otherwise efficient individual that turned to means of non-confrontational communication to get the job done.
The only problem is the situation then turns into a one-sided communication that allows only limited solutions. Most problems or situations have many more possible outcomes than we first imagine. For better or worse, if two parties enter into a difficult conflict with opposing positions and a commit to a meaningful discussion leading up to a final resolution, we will always have more options at the end than if it were a one-sided email. The problem is backbone. Call it confidence. Call it whatever you want. I will venture to say that most individuals can’t see past the conflict to a resolution. Even if you are the boss and your job is to fire the employee, there are an extensive set of factors that will make your firing go well or poorly. Don’t just take advice from the “Bobs” on Office Space and fire that person on Friday afternoon to avoid any “incidents”. You may call the individual into your office to fire them and find out they have such a love for you and the company, that they still want to work there for free??? You also may find out that they have thousands of dollars of company equipment in their possession and they are willing to return it with out a fight if they can leave with a little dignity.
The personification of the worlds worst bosses is found here below in this clip of the Bobs. In honor of douche-bag career professionals, I have created a new category on my blog entitled Things They Don’t Teach in High School.
