A Difficult Position

Sometimes workplace interactions can be more hostile than intended. Being able to remain calm and react in a positive manor when tensions run high is an important asset to have in the business world. In the proposed situation, you have a boss that requests feedback from you and fellow employees, however when she receives any form of criticism she goes off on a tangent. This behavior leads to people just agreeing with all that she says to avoid these outbursts. How would you handle this situation and what would you say?

In this particular situation, as with many of the hypothetical situations we’ve encountered, I am very limited on real-world experience. So having to imagine myself in this situation, I would say that meeting with my boss in a private setting would be very important. Confronting them in front of a group could easily be taken as a personal attack and cause the situation to become more heated than necessary.

During the meeting, it is really important to keep things comfortable and not in an accusatory fashion. Really focusing in on the importance of a positive work environment.

• A positive work environment promotes a positive work ethic for all employees, which helps business.
• Constructive criticism should be used to fix any and all issues, helping things run smoothly.
• Probably most important is that constructive criticism should not be taken as a personal attack.

With any luck, your boss will be open-minded enough to understand that sometimes a collective take on a subject can lead to a better running company or more easily solved issue.

Direct v. Indirect: Adapting

As I have said before, I have never written or presented a recommendation report for anyone or anything, but this week we’ve been asked to answer a question referring to the scenario. “If you were writing a recommendation report for an audience that doesn’t know you, would you use the direct approach, focusing on the recommendation, or the indirect approach, focusing on logic? Why?”

Since I obviously have no experience with this topic I figured I would have to refer to our textbook for answers. Thill and Bovee write about direct v. indirect approaches for oral presentations on pg. 329 of Business Communications: The Essentials. From what I am getting from it, you use the direct approach for good news and a receptive audience and indirect for bad news or persuasion and when expecting resistance from the crowd.

To me, this would mean that you have to read the crowd a bit and also decide whether the message is primarily positive or negative in nature.

For example if you are recommending that a branch of a company be closed, that’s bad news, so an indirect approach should be used. Meanwhile, if you are recommending an expansion for the company or a merger (with positive benefits), the direct approach is more appropriate.

There isn’t a cookie cutter mold for how to do each different kind of presentation so, as with any form of communication, written or oral, being able to adapt to the audience is crucial. Especially when desiring a certain outcome from the presentation. 

Careers and Resumes

Just about every person I’ve known that is in college or has gone to college previously had changed their major because of uncertainty. The troublesome part is when you’ve already narrowed down your degree choice but still have uncertainty with what your actual career path will be/is once you’ve graduated.

You’ve worked hard and now it’s time to find a job that you’ll use your education for and actually enjoy going to everyday. When looking for a job there’s one thing you’ll need, a resume. If you don’t know what your career path you are wanting to go in to, it can change some of how you put your resume together.

Your resume is a tool that you can use to open doors to prospective employers where you can highlight some of your strengths and skills, as well as previous experience and achievements. All of these things can and should be part of your resume whether you know what you want to be doing in 5-10 years or not.

Maybe you’re like I was a few months ago. I knew that I was not going to find a position in my desired career area, I have too little experience and too much time before I graduate. I used chapter 13 in our textbook Business Communication Essentials, by Courtland Bovee and John Thill, to write my resume. Basically I included everything that I talked about in the last paragraph. I put my previous jobs, my education (in progress) and made sure to list my skills, even though I didn’t have a target position. I was able to get a job, and was even complimented on my resume, and when the day comes that I do have my actual career path picked out, I will use these guidelines again.