July 23, 2013 • Volume 4, Issue 15 • ISSN: 2154-3240

In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: Manage Your Manager
♦	Ask Amanda: How do I get others to play ball during a process change?
♦	Practical Tips: Accepting Compliments

Manage Your Manager

Most of you are aware that your relationship with your supervisor is critical to happiness at work. After all, your manager controls access to resources and can dramatically influence how others see you. And if you manage the relationship well, it’s often seen as an indication of your potential for growth within the company.

At minimum it’s important that you understand three things. First, you need to understand your manager’s personality and how it meshes—or doesn’t—with your own. You may have to adapt your style to ensure a smooth working relationship. This doesn’t mean you’re being inauthentic. Skillful leaders are expert at building bonds with others by adapting their style.
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	Yes can mean maybe, but maybe rarely means yes.

Practical Tips:
Accepting Compliments

Are you one of those people who brush off a compliment or, worse yet, points out to the giver the “flaws” in your accomplishment? If so, cut it out. Think about the messages you’re sending.

You’re telling the compliment giver their judgment is wrong—which, at minimum, is rude. You’re broadcasting—and highlighting—your insecurities. You’re turning the focus of their comment in a negative direction. Lose-lose-lose.
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Our company is changing processes and I'm in charge of making it happen but people are not playing ball. How do I get everyone on board? J.M., NY, NY

Most people have a knee-jerk aversion to change. After all, change is just one more thing to deal with in an already pressure-packed day—and often it seems like things are working just fine the way they are.
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Recommended Resources

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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.