A hodgepodge of work related thoughts:
Just how do you deal with higher-ups who don’t seem to like you or have faith in you? (Okay, I kind of already know the answer. Come up with brilliant ideas and push them, making you’re seen doing the work and get the credit in the end. Right?)
What about writing business-related emails? Nobody ever really teaches you how. I don’t even know if I’m doing it right. I also hate hounding people, especially when they’ve promised to get back to you with something and don’t. Still, I understand that most people I deal with are far busier than I am. Perfecting the art of the virtual ‘nudge’ to remind and prompt things along.
And finally, owning our mistakes. I find it hard to take criticism or even have my mistakes pointed out to me, being somewhat of a perfectionist. My stomach just sinks. But I’ve come a long way from the old days, at least.
I liked your post, it really identifies with a lot of people in corporate America. My wife in fact has a serious problem with her upper management. I hate to make the equivocation that it is more common with women, however I see it more. I think it honestly comes down to an approval addiction.
Yes your boss has an obligation to being a good boss & giving you necessary feedback, but take the small victories as well, your boss is not the end all be all of opinions.
Those that seem to get the immediate responses & lessen the response time, have a way of stroking the ego or creating that sense of urgency that surrounds the issue. I myself have often gone around the boss to the source to advise on such a roadblock, nobody should be immune to progress in the workplace, laziness is laziness. Great blog. Please visit mine, I think you might enjoy my Perspective blog. Take Care.
When people don’t get back to me, I usually give them a call and say something along the lines of:
Hi Ms/Mr Forgetful,
I’m just following up on the status of Thing You Forgot, and was wondering if you had a chance to review it? Do you need anything else from me? ………
GL. It’s tough! But you’ll get better at it 🙂
Like I say with my staff – they don’t need to like me, they just need to respect me. When you’re dealing with senior folk, it’s catch as catch can if that applies to their philosophy but do your best to depersonalize things to keep the daily routine easier.
I’m not saying to ignore the politics of the situation – that will get you in trouble – but don’t take things to heart when they seem to be in the spirit of “they just don’t like me.” Do the best work you can, and seek the alliance of people who will support you within the organization, higher up or not.
Business emails can be tricky, but you can probably find some courses online to try .. I’ll keep an eye out for you. I didn’t find TOO much value from the course I took before but they did have some good points. Email me if you want me to eyeball anything for you.
I totally feel you on the last part and it’s taken me a long time but I separate myself from my mistakes as much as I can. I’m the first to admit to anyone (higher or lower) when something is my fault and how I’m going to fix it. Focus on the solution, and not just on the fact that a problem occurred.