December 10, 2013 • Volume 4, Issue 25 • ISSN: 2154-3240

Holiday Hiatus - We’ll Be Back in 2014!

In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: Seeing Through Your Boss’s Eyes
♦	Ask Amanda: My client thinks I’m being confrontational but I’m not! Suggestions?
♦	Practical Tips: Remembering Names

Seeing Through Your Boss’s Eyes

As you go up the career ladder, you may realize that you made mistakes earlier in your career because you didn’t appreciate what the view was like from the perspective of your boss. Maybe you leaned on your boss too much because you had a personal relationship with her, but now you realize that while mentoring is all well and good, bosses have jobs to do as well. Or maybe you didn’t use the best judgment when deciding to involve your boss in your work, and now you realize how lucky you were to report to someone who was so patient. Now that you have direct reports yourself, you can avoid these mistakes by training others on how to best interact with you. It will make your life easier and your work environment better.

Be clear with your direct reports regarding your expectations. If they have potential solutions to a problem and need a decision from you, tell them they better have a point of view and a good, solid recommendation before walking into your office.
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	Create your own reality.

Practical Tips:
Remembering Names

Even at the best of times it can be a challenge to remember someone’s name. Throw in the holidays with lots of social activity and it can be virtually impossible to do so. According to a study conducted at the Cerebral Lateralization Laboratory at Montclair State University in N.J., making a fist helps you remember.

Clench your right hand while trying to remember something and clench your left hand when trying to recall it. The hypothesis is that clenching your right hand stimulates the left side of the brain, which creates memories, while the left hand engages the right side of the brain, where memory is retrieved.

Thanks to Bottom Line Personal for that little tidbit!

My client perceives every question I ask as "pushback" and it's making our relationship tense. My role is to provide counsel and often I'm just clarifying to make sure I heard correctly. I've tried everything but so far the only thing that has changed is now she makes me feel guilty on top of everything else! What should I do? M.K., Chicago, IL

It sounds like your client is very sensitive and perceives your questions as challenges to her authority. Many people react to tone rather than content or intent. Try making statements and weighing her responses, instead of questioning her directly.
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About Us: Our Corporate Life LLC (OCL) is a company that offers a new system for reducing unnecessary workplace suffering caused by the organizational, interpersonal, and ethical issues of our time. It is founded on the belief that adhering to core human values and achieving business success are always compatible. Working with both companies and individuals, OCL helps create solutions that enable corporate employees at every level to optimize profits while enabling them to thrive in the corporate environment. OCL was founded by Amanda Mitchell to help meet the needs of people working in corporate America during this transformative moment in our nation's history. The OCL system reflects her experience and insight gained from a 20–year corporate career working with Fortune 500 companies, and as an executive coach to senior–level corporate executives.