PODCAST CHECK: Managing difficult people / situations at work

 

This month we reviewed “The Bossy Bees” podcast, as the hosts Kim and Stacy were talking nuances around creating boundaries at work. Former colleagues and friends, Kim and Stacy approach their work with similar drive to create success for the team, but take up different methods when it comes to drawing boundaries at work. This podcast mainly focused on how to manage stakeholder relationships when you have to say “no” and also touched upon aspects including building relationships and manipulation, dealing with difficult people and organizational culture.

Umsetzung und Persönlicher Eindruck

The podcast is not rhetorical, nor sticks to a pattern but rather is more conversational and engaging. Ms. Stacy begins by talking about elevating what everyone else (her colleagues) is doing, as opposed to the work that she does; terminating it as good leadership, celebrating and paying attention to everyone else is important, and not yourself. However, when you see something assigned to someone isn't either being done or falling through the cracks, Stacy and Kim tend to figure out how to incorporate it into their work stream. At this point, they talk about how one must learn to say “no”, and rather focus on their individual task. Setting really clear boundaries with not only oneself, but realizing that when boundaries are set, it protects everyone else around working with them.

Kim raises some important questions regarding this, namely if people at your work are receptive to you drawing boundaries. As a person that one says "no" to something, it usually ruffles feathers. But before you say “no”, you need to learn to get support on that “no” from superiors, fellow colleagues, etc.. One must not feel obliged to have to give a reason saying “no”; sometimes, it is because it does not fall within our scope of work and this is literally not our job. However, can you be that direct? Stacy answers this saying, she has been recognized in her organization because she is direct and learned to not say "yes", but rather learned to say "no", in a different way. 

The response of the audience is usually met with one pushing back and received with hatred. At this point, Stacy advises Kim to seek her manager and buy support. So you already know how you're going to say it, but when stakeholders or executives feel like, they weigh in, they feel more involved. This is called positioning. However, if you have been steered in a different direction, (recommendations, like “I would be cautious about doing that”), it conflicts with your opinion and things can get difficult. In this case Stacy recommends on building good relationships out of playing those politics, where everyone benefits.

The next topic raised by Kim is about her management style not being the one that she sees in her own organization, that means how she is able to work with her team and manage them is very different with regard to the comfort she feels within her organization . Organizational culture is not something that can change overnight, but you have full power and control over how individuals, no matter where they are in the company, work with you. But it can cause you physical and psychological discomfort.

Kim proceeds to explain about verbal abuse she faced by her superiors in her organization. She talks about getting yelled by her client and how she felt helpless. What can you do in this kind of situation? And if he/she, if that person has that reputation, then you know, somebody else has experienced this terrorism as well. The bottom line is money. But, ironically, there's a lot of other people that are capable of making money, that aren't terrorists.

An interesting story of Princess Diana was shared in the course of this podcast as she was really good at finding persons in the crowd that seem to be felt like an outcast, so she was able to connect with them, as she was a very caring personality .

In terms of business life there's a facade or some type of persona targeting the vulnerable and attacking them. While the façade is intentional sometimes, in other cases, it's more like a self defense mechanism, because of things one experienced when being younger. It makes us realize, how much of childhood trauma carries all the way through our lives, not just into personal life, but also like right into the workplace. The conversation concludes with the remark that humans have a tendency to keep repeating things, until recognizing how to break that cycle.

Fazit

 

 

 

 

 

 

The podcast on the whole was informative, however lacked a sequence and was rather conversational and typically American. If you're someone looking for a light-hearted podcast to listen on the go, this is definitely for you. However, if you're someone, seeking a profound as well as valuable listening experience, this could be disappointing as there are rather casual conversations all through diluting the core content intended to be conveyed.

 

Do check out the podcast here: https://thebossybees.com/managing-difficult-people-at-work