Happy Friday! Here’s your weekly tip on how to be more human at work
Imagine your manager (or any authority figure) as a child.
Let me start with a story…
I was a junior marketer at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare. I quickly realized that junior people in the organization (my peers) were scared to death of senior leaders. Because my career path was not traditional (i.e., I managed to avoid the corporate world until I was 30 and didn’t have an MBA), I had not learned that I was supposed to fear my leaders. Sometimes this worked to my advantage and sometimes…not so much.
Anyway, I didn’t think it made sense to have an organization where junior people couldn’t feel safe talking to their leaders. So I found a few mentors and developed a program where junior people could submit an idea on how to improve the company and, if selected, they would get to present their idea to the leadership team and get support in developing and pitching their idea.
At the kickoff of this initiative, I was interviewed as part of a panel. The entire leadership team was sitting in the front row. And I said to them “You’re all really scary. If you could be a little less scary, it would help.” Or something like that.
After the event, the President of the company came up to me and said (in a very non-scary way) “If you had seen me changing diapers last night you wouldn’t be so scared of me.”
It opened my eyes. Big time.
It’s easy to be scared of your leaders. They have power over you. They have big titles, big offices, and lots of experience. Often, they’re older which may conjure up whatever mommy or daddy issues you may have (we all have some).
It’s easy to turn leaders into caricatures. But it’s not fair. Or helpful.
However many awards they’ve won, however prestigious their title, however fancy their office, however wealthy they are, however much power they have…they are still human. They change diapers. They have petty conflicts with their parents. Their kids sometimes treat them like shit. Their cars still break down. And if none of that helps you see them as humans, they all fart!
If you’ve been reading through the lines here, you’ll realize I’m talking about empathy. Yes, even for the rich and powerful. Nobody gets out of this life unscathed. We are all human. And that’s wonderful. Because it means we are all capable of connecting with each other.
Whatever you’re dealing with, your boss is dealing with too. And their boss. Even the CEO. Even the Chairman…
Start seeing humans as humans and not as the caricatures you conjure in your mind, and you will be much more effective at navigating workplace relationships.
Hint: This doesn’t only work for senior leaders. It works for everyone.
This message was brought to you by the humans of Rule No. 1.
