Tuesday, January 17, 2023

The Workplace Series - Up Your Skills

How to survive, contribute to your workplace, and handle various work transitions are among the things I educate young people as a youth consultant. The Boss Management According to Antonio grasso's most recent post, one of the soft skills you must master is managing your boss. 

This reminds me of Law 1 of The 48 Laws of Power which says, Never Outshine the Master. If you want to survive as an employee, this is unquestionably true. Be ready to put forth all the effort and give the BOSS all the credit. In my estimation and what I have experienced only a small percentage of people—about 10%—would offer you credit in front of others; the other 90% would rather do so in secret. 

 The Workplace 

 If you are employed, I want to remind you that the first law must be followed if you want to survive in the workplace is never try to outdo the master. Absolutely, no boss would want to appear foolish in front of a group or meeting. 

 My Story

 I once went to an important meeting with one of my former bosses. The boss had the title, but I had the idea (passion, information and knowledge), so I believe we could have closed the deal if the boss had been willing to swallow his or her pride and give me some 80% responsibility in the meeting to articulate the idea. 

Remember that I was the initial point of contact in this situation, and I sold the concept to the point where the contact person invited us to their organization to discuss more potential forms of cooperation between the two organizations. 

Anyway, to make a long story short, I didn't do anything to surpass my boss, but even after giving everything I had, I believe I had the best chance of pitching the idea to the partner before the boss could make additional contributions (Tag team strategy). 

The boss preferred to do the opposite, leaving me to simply listen and take notes. Guess what happened? The prospective partner never followed up again. This reminds me of how many good ideas are killed in the boardroom because their creators don't come from the management structure. 

Below are some of the lessons I picked from my story; 

  1.  At times, titles get in the way and sabotage a brilliant idea that can only be expressed by employees in lower ranks. You'll be delighted with the results if you can learn to delegate
  2.  A good boss would pay more attention to the opinions of other employees and would always leave room for consultation before taking any actions. 
  3. The old adage "the boss is always right" is untrue because, in some cases, they just need to delegate and let others shine without feeling threatened. May be I'm very over ambitious in my thoughts because in some situation the boss have the responsibility for hiring and firing, which makes them feel right always and encourages people to always go the boss's way to avoid been fired. 
  4. In both public and private settings, as a boss, give credit where it's due. If you do, your team will back you more and you will demonstrate strong leadership skills. 

Read 11 important Soft Skills by https://www.instagram.com/agrassoblog @agrassoblog and thanks for sharing more insightful post and articles. Your post triggered my thought when I read the Boss Management as a soft skill which is also key in a workplace. 


I also recommend the 48 laws of power by Robert Greene as part of the books you should read. The 48 Laws of Power Summary https://www.oberlo.com/blog/48-laws-of-power-robert-greene-summary 

Do More / Be More / Be Different

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