Our Corporate Life
February 21, 2012   •   Volume 3, Issue 4   •   ISSN: 2154-3240    
In This Issue
♦   Feature Article: Handling Difficult Conversations
Ask Amanda: What's the deal with "swirly" thinkers?
♦   Practical Tips: Stay Visible
 
Handling Difficult Conversations

As a manager, part of your job is having difficult conversations—with clients, direct reports, and your management—and yet few people handle this situation well. Most people avoid these conversations, which usually compounds the problem. However, with planning, these conversations can become more manageable and less emotionally loaded.

Recognize that focusing on your own anxiety or fears about the upcoming conversation only makes things worse. Managing your emotions is the key to success.
read more

Thought to Ponder

What you can become you are already.

   
Practical Tips: Stay Visible

It is very easy to get so consumed by the day-to-day responsibilities of your position that you forget that part of your job is to stay top-of-mind with influencers both internally and externally. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time but it needs to be (or become!) a habit.

Keep a high profile in your field.
You can do so by participating in associations, contributing articles, blog posts, or expertise to your trade publications, participating in panel discussions, and engaging with industry thought leaders.
read more

       
  ask Amanda
Question:

I have been very successful running my department and getting things done. I am now in tons of meetings with "swirly" thinkers--they go around and around and never say anything—and yet they are well thought of by management. What gives? D.B., Plainsboro, NJ

Amanda Mitchell
Answer:

It sounds like you’ve been rewarded for making things happen, which likely means that you’re very good operationally. If so, you probably are very experienced in dealing with tangible problems and resolving them. Your world is largely black and white, focused on meeting your deliverables. Solutions work or they don’t.
read more

    
       
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Recommended Resources

What The Komen Foundation Kerfuffle has to do with corporate suffering: click here to find out!

Positive Intelligence - Harvard Business Review's article which is well worth the read!

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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. Our Corporate Life
 
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