Page 108 - Make Work Great

Growing Your Crystal

to convince your manager to implement your system on a widespread

basis or to use it as a way to influence his or her opinion of you.
Overtness About Resources if You Are the Employee
You probably already discuss questions of resources with your man-
ager. When you don’t have something you need to do your job and
you’re not able to get it at your own level, your only choice is to esca-
late. To role-model resource-based conversations even more effectively,
all you have to do is occasionally interject a comment about resources
for one of your summary outputs when you don’t have a problem: “In
accomplishing this, I’ll make use of the following resources [list them].
I don’t see any issue in acquiring those resources at this point, but I’ll
naturally let you know if any problems come up.” A statement like this
role-models overtness about resources in less than 60 seconds.

Overtness About Capability if You Are the Employee
Many people get nervous about discussing capability with superiors.
Some feel uncomfortable about articulating their own strengths; oth-
ers are especially hesitant to disclose their weaknesses. Even when
trust is high between you and your manager, this can be a daunt-
ing conversation. But consider this—sooner or later, most managers
are going to be required to give you feedback on your strengths and
weaknesses. While you don’t want to boast, and you certainly don’t
wish to provide ammunition against yourself, it may be in your best
interest to help your manager develop that feedback. Seek ways to
be succinctly overt about your capability: “I’m proud of the skills
I’ve developed in this [give specifi c] area, and would appreciate your
feedback so I can get even better.” Or, “I feel like I have a lot to learn
about [specifi c area], and I thought you might be able to help me.”
By initiating the conversation, you have much more control over its
scope and direction than if you wait for the feedback to “happen to
you.” And by disclosing your needs in advance, you reduce the poten-
tial for your manager to complain about you. Instead, you initiate a
conversation about how to work together to obtain a needed element
for your output.

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