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Skills Development: |
To Be Heard, Gain Weight part 2 of 2 |
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"Employees who gather relevant and important information and clearly communicate it to their boss have the possibility of gaining greater access to corporate direction setting and resource allocation."
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Employees also need to gain the weight of professional competence. An ancient Jewish proverb says it well, “Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure men.”(1) It is hard to listen to people who are willfully ignorant or unskilled. The volume of their incompetence drowns out the volume of their voice. Conversely, the voice of committed employees who have developed professional expertise is powerful in the ears of a wise boss. Similar to the weight of the bottom line, employees who demonstrate professional competence over time gain influential weight with their boss. A third aspect of influential weight is the ability to clearly communicate relevant and important information. Wise bosses realize that they are in constant need of substantive information. Employees who gather relevant and important information and clearly communicate it to their boss have the possibility of gaining greater access to corporate direction setting and resource allocation. Wise bosses aren't looking for trivia, gossip or supposition. What they greatly need is information that will guide them as they lead the people and manage the work of the organization. A final kind of weight that can establish our influence with our boss is the weight that comes from proven loyalty and trust. Demonstrated loyalty and trust are catalysts for access and collaboration. All too often bosses and employees fail to prove themselves loyal or trustworthy. This failure lures some to cynically believe that those who live by these two traits are archaic and naive. Employees who choose to demonstrate loyalty and trust do so because they know that it is the right thing to do. For them it is a matter of conscience. Their boss realizes that they are the kind of people that are important to develop and retain. Their boss also realizes that their counsel is principled rather than self-seeking. Employees who gain the weight of the bottom line, professional competence, clear communication of relevant and important information, and loyalty and trustworthiness increase the value of their service to their boss and their companies. They cannot make their boss listen. Listening is the boss's decision to make. What employees can do is gain a voice that is hard to dismiss and that one would be foolish to ignore. In listening, their boss will gain the benefit of their input. In ignoring them, their boss will eventually suffer the loss of missing their input and of losing them as employees. For employees to be heard, they must first gain weight. As they do, their bosses will begin to realize that in order to succeed, they must listen. ------------------------------------- (1)Proverbs 22:29. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ page 1 2 © Copyright – John Hawkins – July 2000 - Used with permission |
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