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Yes, welcome to the biz communication show, I’m your host Bill Lampton, the biz communication guy, all fun hosting a guest that I interview a business communication expert. Today, you are my special guest. Because I have some strategies and techniques to share with you that will boost your business. I’m sure that there’s one problem that you and I have had in common. And mine certainly came during my 20 years and Management at the vice presidential level, and college work and in health care. And you know, from your own experience in the workplace, what it’s like, when a supervisor, your supervisor, walks into the room and says here, I’ve got a new assignment for you. Now, Simon Lee, you’re thinking a lot of things. Is this guy or Lady crazy? Don’t they know how much I’ve got already? How am I going to say no, I’ll get in trouble if I do. What are they thinking anyway? Who do they think I am Superman or Superwoman? Well, how do you handle that? What do you do? I wish during my time in management, that I had read Stephen Covey’s book, wonder wonderful book, The Seven Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Because in there, he tells a strategy for saying no to your supervisor, without losing face without losing your job. Without being told that you don’t have the right to do that. Here’s his strategy. He tells of a personal experience when he was the Vice President for Human Relations at a major university. As the Vice President, he hired a wonderful creative writer to add to his staff. The creative writer had been there several months, when Stephen Covey walked in and said, Here’s an assignment for you. Here’s your next assignment. Now, this creative writer was loyal to the organization. He was a good worker, he was cooperative. His morale was high. And yet, he was in a dilemma. He could not do what Covey asked him to do. So here’s the strategy he took, which you and I need to remember next time, we see an overload coming from our supervisor. Covey said that his creative writer said to him, Mr. Kirby, I want you to walk with me over here to this wall board, because at this wall board, I’ve got a list of all of my assignments that I have from you. So cubby walked over there, and they were looking at the list. And the writer said to Covey, okay, if you remove one of these that you have already assigned me, then I can do what you asked me. You say he didn’t defy Covey. He didn’t say, you’re way off base. He didn’t say You’re unreasonable. He didn’t say you got poor judgment. No, he just said, Hey, I’m not the one to decide this. You’re the one to decide this. You’ve given me all this. But you have to take something away if you’re going to give me something else to do. Covey said that he learned a valuable lesson from that creative writer, and is one that we can learn. And the next time an administrator or a supervisor, a boss, a board chairman, whoever comes to you and says, I’ve got something new for you to do and you know that you just cannot do it. If you do it, you’ll have to neglect what you’ve already been told to do, and you’ll get in trouble for that. So use that strategy. Say instead is not my decision. Here’s the list of assignments. Which one do you want? To take off, so we can fit this one in. That’s why Stephen Covey, and one of the reasons in my mind, he’s one of the great geniuses of business management.
And that book, if you haven’t read it, I certainly hope you will, I was a long time getting around to it, and would have helped me so much earlier on. Now, I hope this, I know that this advice has been beneficial for you. And so I’m asking you if you want more great advice in the way of brief videos, I want you to go to my YouTube channel, which when you go to YouTube, and there’s the blank there for search, searching to find somebody type in Bill Lampton PhD, and you will come to my YouTube channel. And when you do, you’ll have access to dozens and dozens of my interviews, without standing business communication professionals, and you’ll learn from them just as I have. And also, you will have many of my solo presentations, such as this one when I take a topic, which will be very useful and beneficial and constructive for you, and your employment and your career. So, go there, find that subscribe button, and hit the subscribe button. And then also, I invite you to go to my website. Since I’m the biz communication guy quite logically, it’s biz bi Z biz communication guy.com. When you go there, you’ll find out about my services for corporations and leaders. And then, of course, I hope you’ll want to give me a call so that we can have an exploratory no obligation, no cost conversation up to 30 minutes about your communication problems and challenges. We’ll explore how I can assist you with them. So thanks again for joining me whether you did that by video, or whether you’re listening to the podcast version. And stick around for future versions of the biz communication show. I’m Bill Lampton, the biz communication guy who helps you find winning words and ways. So I encourage you, stick with us for future opportunities. Thanks again for being with me today. And we’ll see you again soon.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
