Are you searching for a blog topic? Looking for something that is timely and relevant?
Why don’t you write about the economy? Nobody is doing it (heh) and really we need more people telling us what’s going right, wrong and how we’re (not) fixing it. Even more, we really need more people who have no idea how the economy works to tell us how the economy is shaking down.
Opinions Are Like …
I’m not going to spend this post being a hater but it seems like everyone has something to say about the economy. Unless you are the Wall Street Journal, you are going to have to put an interesting or relevant spin on it for me to even read through it.
Laurie wrote about this phenomenon earlier about the person in your family that wants to tell you how the Federal Reserve is bogus or how the answer to our struggles is to throw the auto CEO’s into prison for life. Save it for Rush Limbaugh or Air America, pal.
You want to talk to me about the economy? Tell me how it is impacting your business. Tell me how it is impacting you. Tell me how you are coping with it (or thriving in it). And if you are interested, I’ll tell you that about me too.
What Is Your Competency?
Of course, this all goes back to your career. Doesn’t everything?
When employees or managers dabble in HR (or any other department for that matter) and they don’t have the expertise, they better have something that is interesting or relevant to add. When they don’t, they look like the fool who works at a truck stop and tries to tell you about the solution to the credit crunch.
And if you work in the truck stop industry, please forgive me but it is an example of people being monumentally less interested in what you are saying than what you think. When somebody comes to me with a federal law and starts to lecture me on its application, I listen politely. When I have to inform them that they are incorrect because there is a state law that supersedes the federal law in this case, they wasted a lot of time for nothing.
Still Want To Dabble?
Do you want to be interesting and relevant at work? Do you want to learn about areas of the business you are unfamiliar with? There are four really easy things you can do:
- Stop giving your opinions
- Start asking questions
- Listen to their answers
- Add only when necessary
Warning: This may cause you to gain increased respect and authority at work. Use with extreme caution.
If you want an example, I have one for you.
Let’s say you are an HR person for a sales organization. They want to do a campaign but they need more staff in a couple areas and need to realign some of their other employees into different areas. How do you know this? You shut up for a couple seconds and asked them a few questions. You said you could help them put together a plan for reorganizing the department and hiring new people. You ask more questions that help you accomplish your part. You add your opinion once you have grasped the situation.
When you leave that coversation, nobody thinks of you as the truck stop talking, politics spewing guy. And really, that’s a good thing.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
If you want to dabble, get a hobby.
I love how six months ago everyone was explaining how they / their industry / their company was recession-proof. I don’t hear much about that anymore.
But on your main subject, some people have aspects of their lives that are very defining. Even if they could, they just don’t want to keep a lid on it. That understandably annoys some people, but for the most part this type of person is willing to take that hit. We all know several people who are so defined by a religion, or by being vegan, or by worrying about the environment, or by their political beliefs that, to them, everything is about that subject.
I know of what I speak! I personally believe that society cannot move forward until it recognizes the moral significance of the individual, and respects every individual’s right to be free of aggression as a matter of principal, a la libertarianism. Why would I shut up about this? Why would a committed Christian shut up about salvation? There are better and worse ways to get these kinds of world-view messages out, but, as understandable as your advice is from your perspective, we are just going to use the workplace and our professional relationships to expand our audience for these ideas. To us it is a worthwhile trade off. Sharing our beliefs is more important than our professional advancement and, ultimately, even our personal relationships. So we’ll go out on some long limbs to do it.
On behalf of all of us…. sorry?
1. Stop giving your opinions
2. Start asking questions
3. Listen to their answers
4. Add only when necessary
Humility is a character trait that we hugely undervalue.