Don’t be afraid to give out ideas. Don’t hog it. Give it away, for you’d be surprised to find that somehow it’ll come back to you for the better.
I was asked two days ago to give some comments about a contest that Head Office were supposed to be doing for my workplace. The contest was supposed to kick off by next week but I guess they conveniently forgot to inform the people on site about it; that’s right, they forgot to inform me and my team about it.
So I did the next best thing I could do; thank them for having the contest here while also ‘thanking’ them by giving them a piece of my mind about the contest. I threw them some ideas of my own on how the contest should have been organised, which indirectly meant I was criticizing them on their original plans.
- Image by Felipe Morin via Flickr
Guess what? They told me yesterday that the contest has been shelved and that I am to propose a new one based on my earlier ‘rants’. Hmm… so much for my big mouth then.
So I got down to thinking about it last night, mind-mapping the things I needed to present today so that it looks convincing.
I discussed it at length with my team this morning before dishing it out nicely in Powerpoint to be sent to Head Office for their review. Now to wait for their response on my proposal, to see whether they bought into it.
So don’t be afraid to speak up if you’re right (or if you feel you’re right). Shoot them on their ideas and then offer one of your own. You might be surprised that sometimes even dickheads bosses have some common sense too. Do it objectively and you won’t be looked upon as being vindictive.
Remember, we’re the grown-ups; we talk reasoning.
