As we approach Thanksgiving here in the United States, no matter where you are located it’s a very good time to think through all the ways you are grateful to your boss and/or manager—AND express it.
While this may seem like mere emotional generosity, and why bother, if you take that attitude you miss out on a deeply important opportunity to Manage Up!
When you Manage Up, you help your manager grow in leadership depth and skill, AND you reinforce how you want to be treated going forward.
EXAMPLES:
*** When you thank your manager for giving you opportunities to stretch your skill set and then reward you with praise when you get it right, you invite more of the same going forward. You’ve opened yourself to reveal how much it’s meant to be believed in and allowed to rise to the occasion. And now, don’t hesitate to say you want more!
*** When you express gratitude that your boss has shared personal issues throughout the year, you can also indicate that it’s allowed you to feel safer and closer and therefore have a tighter bond. In this way, you let yourself be seen more fully in your own humanity and you make the workplace a safer environment going forward.
*** If your manager is good at using humor to inspire and motivate, and you enjoy the team spirit that it creates, by all means let this be known. This way you encourage more good natured kidding around and having fun—all the while feeling even more dedicated to getting the best work done possible.
Gratitude and Managing Up go hand in hand when your thankfulness encourages more and better leadership from whoever you report to—and/or even executives you want to encourage to go forward with stronger EQ, leadership values, and more overt strategic oversight—assuming you know them well enough to speak with them this way.
So, be generous with your praise and gratitude any time, but especially at this Thanksgiving time here in the U.S.
Judith Sherven, PhD and her husband Jim Sniechowski, PhD http://JudithandJim.com have developed a penetrating perspective on people’s resistance to success, which they call The Fear of Being Fabuloustm. Recognizing the power of unconscious programming to always outweigh conscious desires, they assert that no one is ever failing—they are always succeeding. The question is, at what? To learn about how this played out in the life of Whitney Houston for example, and how it may be playing out in your own life, check out their 6th book: http://WhatReally KilledWhitneyHouston.com
Currently providing transformational executive coaching, leadership training, and consulting for LinkedIn and a dozen other Tech companies and individuals around the world, they continually prove that when unconscious beliefs are brought to the surface, the barriers to greater success and leadership presence begin to fade away. You can learn about their core program “Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous” by going to
http://OvercomingtheFearofBeingFabulous.com
Their 7th book, short and to the point, “25 Power Speaking Tips That Will Leave Your Audiences Wanting More,” is available in kindle at: http://tinyurl.com/25PWRSPKGTips
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