Page 208 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

You Manage Your Career and Don’t Let Others Do It • 189

being watched as much for what you do as for how you do it in a less than
perfect situation.
Do not decide to leave the company as your first reaction. You’ll
know it’s time to leave when “the smell of the place changes,” meaning
that you just know, deep in your gut, and it’s for goal-achieving not
tension-relieving reasons.
Talk to your boss. Find out his or her pet projects, and get involved
in those. Few bosses will demote someone who is working on a favorite
project. Simultaneously, get off any project the boss doesn’t like.
Initiate cost reductions in your department. Don’t pressure the boss
for an expanded budget—instead, ask for a leaner, tighter budget.
Tell your boss that you know that times are tough and that you are
willing to accept and promote an across-the-board pay cut.
Volunteer for additional duties. Find a vacuum, and fill it. Show
your crossover ability. You’ll become too valuable to lose. Improve your
relations with other departments; this is no time for empire building.
Maintain a positive, cooperative attitude—it takes pressure off the
boss, and you won’t appear like a malcontent. Likewise, maintain a sense of
humor—and keep away from negative people and conversations.
Have the guts to make decisions. If you appear scared and timid,
you decrease others’ confidence in you. Have the guts also to ask more
questions. Don’t allow ambiguity. Miscommunication gives people an
excuse to dismiss you.
Show implicit trust that your boss will figure a way out of the situ-
ation and that you can help be part of the solution. Work on increasing
others’ trust in you—make sure that people aren’t nervous around you.
Come in early, and stay late (a little more than usual). Get out of
the carpool, if necessary, so that you aren’t tied to leaving at 5:01.
Have a mental plan B; that is, “If I don’t get the next promotion, I’ll
take steps 1, 2, and 3.” The mental preparation will relax you and improve
your performance. Care, but don’t care too much about keeping this job.
Remember, desperate-looking people are not wanted.
Now, if in addition to the promotion refusal there is a material
reduction in the nature of your duties or the scope of your responsibility
without your consent or a reduction of your base salary compared with
what was in effect on your start date (unless there is an across-the-board