I absolutely love to argue my opinion. To me, that helps the best idea surface. If someone can convince of why something’s a good idea, I get on board and get excited. Unfortunately, that doesn’t go over so well when you have a boss. This is the dilemma I found myself in the other day.
My new boss approached me with an idea that he wanted to implement. Immediately, I started arguing my perspective on the idea. “What if we did this instead? I don’t think that will work. I think it would be better this way.”
I couldn’t understand why that was a problem. Why didn’t that go over ok? Why is my boss unhappy that I did that? Does he not understand that’s the best way for great ideas to come about? He needs to learn how I function best…
That’s what went through my head at first. Until I realized that was arrogant and pretty annoying on my part. Here’s the deal, it doesn’t matter if you work best a certain way. It doesn’t matter if you’re wired a certain way. The only thing that matters is your ability to work with people. If you work well with people, things go well. If you work poorly with people, things go poorly.
I’m learning to table my instincts. I’m learning to respond with enthusiasm at others’ ideas. Once I know they feel their opinion has been heard and considered, then we can discuss. I’m not that good at it yet, but I’m working on it.
It’s hard for me. It’s against my instincts. But I want to work well with my new boss. I want what we produce to be incredible. It’s worth getting over my arrogance and annoying personality to make that happen.
That’s something I’m learning. I’m learning it’s better to work well with people than to function in my sweet spot.
What are you learning today?