- Joined
- Dec 18, 2013
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- 2,387
I have coached many a director on this topic over the years...Hi folks,
So yesterday a person left this comment on my Facebook post:
When this individual posted that comment they were expecting a very specific response. That's why they posted it. I call you a yellow bellied sap sucker and you get mad or offended. That's how these things work. I'm a jerk to you and you respond, as expected, as predicted like my puppet.
OR you can CHOOSE to not allow other people to control you in that way.
I learned this technique 25 years ago during a leadership training course. Not long after I came to work one Monday and there's a scathing email in my box from a manager in another office. This guy Mark had nothing flattering to say about me. He copied my boss, his boss and the regional director. Prior to this training I would have told Mark where he could go and what he could do when he got there. But I thought I would try this technique I had just learned.
So I replied to Mark, copying the same senior managers and director. Completely ignoring his attack I was 100% positive and friendly. Told Mark to give me a call, I got some great ideas.
Mark replied back, thinking Coolidge you idiot I just attacked you and you didn't understand I was attacking you...so he attacked me a second time with even more gusto! lol Again I replied back, copying the same people, again ignoring his attack and this time I laid it on thick, GO TEAM!
At this point the regional director (who forced me to take this leadership training) sent me a text msg asking, "Are you using the training technique on Mark?" I replied, "yup" and the director started cracking up.
Poor Mark is now super confused and more than a bit embarrassed having had a meltdown in full view of all the bosses. So he called me on the phone, apologizing profusely. So I used a 2nd technique I had learned during the training. When you have someone cold, when they are defenseless and you can rake them over the coals, instead you can CHOOSE (there's that word again) to let them completely off the hook. Which is what I did. I told Mark it was already forgotten. I certainly have had my Monday's I guess it was his turn, no worries buddy I still enjoy working with you.
Mark and I were good friends from that day forward and frequently supported each other during annual performance reviews of our staff. Had I responded differently, engaging in a tit for tat, that working relationship would have been destroyed. Zero trust right. Instead I was able to engineer a completely different outcome.
So choose to respond in a way that is not expected. That could be no response at all. Or a response that ignores the intentional swipe completely.