Since I’ve been confirmed a month ago in a fairly senior management position at my US based company, things turned different, my time is now more devoted to resolving conflicts, meetings, conference calls, trade-shows, strategic planning and the like.
Gone are the days when I used to sit, relax, brainstorm about complex solutions, perform designs, manage a small team of 5-6 engineers, explore technologies, spend money on software and hardware and be happy at the end of day when an issue is resolved or a product is released.
My former VP of tech once told me during a review… “Pick your battles”
At first, I didn’t get it, what battles was he talking about? I’m not at war with anyone am I?
Years after, I realized that professional life may indeed seem from time to time like a battleground…people playing on each other’s turf, black-mailing, back-stabbing and even setting traps to each other as grounds for dismissal.
By adopting a neutral, yet diplomatic attitude and approach, I learned when and where to fight ‘the tattle' that my boss was referring too, how to engage my peers and when to perform tactical retreats….Truly is an Art that can only be acquired through listening and experience.
I learned to keep cool when my stress level goes up. In fact, It’s amazing the amount of mistakes or misjudgment an individual can make when he’s in a furry or out of his mind, it gets worse when these mistakes are used against that individual perpetually.
Among the skills that I learned and keep improving on are... how: - To back every word I say with solid proof.
- To fight for my opinions as long as there is a case for them.
- To believe in the goals and the objective
- To be genuine and frank in my dealings with people
- To accept criticism, constructive and destructive alike.
- To back down, retreat and accept blame.
- To transform my frustration into a positive energy for improvement and excellence
And last but not the least…How To Listen!
Feel free to add to the list, coz i might as well learn from you... :-)
6 Comments:
Good luck
it's more or less the same with italians :)
I think also that classifying from time to time the priorities is a critical point,also measuring the degree of perfection about something we are made to avoid loosing time if critical situations.
I mean "in critical situations" (sorry)
So now have you won the battle or not?
@marouen, thank u. I don't think it's even close to italians. southern mediteranean mentality differs significantly from continental north america. Unless i didnt get ur point...
@swifty. i'll take that as an action item :-)
@snwsi, so far so good...
Hum hum! amazing!
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