If you want to stop feeling powerless at work, here's a
good way to start: take responsibility for your own
communication.
What does that have to do with power? A lot, because many
people handle their half of communication exchanges in a
way that erodes their power. Here are some examples of how
you can reclaim your power through more responsible
communication.
Who's in charge here: you or the technology? Are you
jumping to attention every time your computer beeps to tell
you you have mail? That eats into your time in little
chunks every day. Then you don't have enough time to do
your job properly, and you feel stressed and victimized.
The answer? Set a series of times throughout the day,
according to your workload and schedule, to read and
respond to e-mail. Turn off the audio reminder so that you
won't be tempted to abandon your schedule. If anyone needs
to get in touch with you more urgently, they'll call you.
Are you on other people's automated distribution lists? I'm
not talking about spam from around the Internet, but just
people in your organization who seem to want to copy
everyone they know about their every waking thought. Get
off those lists! Approach the people and ask them to remove
your name, and to copy you only on appropriate messages.
Take responsibility for managing your e-mail.
Voicemail
Do people expect you to respond immediately to voicemail
messages, instead of getting on with the work you need to
do? Maybe your greeting is at fault.
If you have planned to work on a major project for two
hours, reflect that in your voicemail greeting. "I will be
unavailable from 10 a.m. until noon today. Please leave a
message and I will return your call as soon after that as
possible." If your phone rings during that time, don't pick
it up. They'll hear the message, and if they leave their
name and number they will know when to expect to hear back
from you. Of course you must also respect their time by
calling back when you said you would.
You don't have to give people a play-by-play description of
your schedule for the day, but do let them know when you
will get back to them.
Take responsibility for managing your telephone response
schedule.
Difficult co-workers
Unfortunately, verbal bullying is all too common in today's
workplace. Some people are accustomed to getting their own
way simply by interrupting and talking louder than anyone
else at meetings, in other people's offices or even in
casual hallway conversations. Don't let them away with it.
Store in your mind a few verbal responses to use as needed.
Here are a few to start you off:
• Perhaps you don't realize you are shouting, but you are.
I'm willing to talk about this, but only in a civilized
manner.
• Please don't interrupt me when I am making a point. When
I finish what I was saying, I'd be happy to hear your point
of view.
• Did you mean that comment to be insulting?
You can add your own, and use words that come naturally to
you. Many bullies will back off when they realize their
tactics are not having the desired effect.
Take responsibility for managing conversations with others.
Communication is always a two-way street. You can't control
the other person's part, but you can certainly take
responsibility for your own. Try it, and just see how
empowered you feel.
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Helen Wilkie is a professional speaker and author,
specializing in workplace communication. Subscribe to her
free monthly e-zine, "Communi-keys" at
http://www.mhwcom.com/pages/communikeys.html and get your
free 40-page e-book, "23 ideas you can use RIGHT NOW to
communicate and succeed in your business career"
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