Leadership is a difficult trait to acquire and being a leader is not the easiest job in the planet! When you are a leader, your followers(for lack of better word) do not necessary respect or adopt a protocol when interacting with you. If they do, things are much easier; for you.
Check out the video to find out the quick answer given by the ice cream shop manager to the US Vice President Joe Biden. In response, the US Vice President Joe Biden probably overreacted to the ice cream shop manager’s request about lowering taxes.
In this situation, the ice cream manager would have been conveying a message sugar coated inside a joke. But, in reality, there are many situations when you are handed out a threatening or difficult question when you are in the limelight!
Have you been in a meeting where there has been at least a threatening or a difficult question raised at you in a non threatening manner? How did you respond?
Yes there hv been many a times.. especially when customer asks a difficult question! I generally counter-question them.. not soo easy but I hv to move the ball from my court.
ReplyDeleteI remember an incident in office.. we had this employee survey done and manager was quite happy abt a point which said.. People dont feel discriminated in our office as per the survey results and he then looked at us (girls) said that means 25% of the strength doesnt feel that! That was not a difficult situation but needed an immediate answer. And I am a feminist by birth :P
Could not control and replied "No! 75% of the public doesnt feel that" :P
Whatever dude! All we non managers are looking for is a manager who can do his/her job instead of playing a leader/ manager! And if you do that you will be fine. But you won't be able to do that because most of your time will be spent sucking up to ... Er I mean managing your managers for your next grade up
ReplyDeleteI am sure , most of us must have been in such situation some time or the other.
ReplyDeleteBest way is to be cool, light a cigarette,await general facial reactions and decide what must be done.
The best thing to do in such situations is to avoid a knee jerk reaction, as mostly these are ones you'll regret (to some extent atleast) later. Better to pause, smile, and then reply. Till then your brain has probably processed the situation better.
ReplyDeleteNice point to bring up though!
@Vineeta - Thanks for sharing your experience.
ReplyDelete@Ranjit - Thanks for dropping by.
My question was not what we do in our workplace to get to the next level. It was more on how do you react?
@BKC, @Vivek - Thank you! Yes, it works when you actually take a pause to think clearly.