When is it time to look for another job? (Relating to personal contentment and peace of mind?)
The very best time to look for another job is WHEN YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE. A big mistake a lot of people make is they take the hike from the old one without having the next place to go. After avoiding that little land mine the next thing to consider when leaving your employment is what the real issue is that makes you want to leave, and can you be very sure it will be corrected if you make a move. For example, if you just don’t like how they treat you, how will you determine a new company would be any better? If you like to argue, bend the rules, be self-expressive and have authority issues, you might find you get the same treatment in lots of companies…. so improvement may be illusive. If it’s more money you’re after, that’s pretty simple to calculate with your new salary or hourly wage compared to your old one, but have you taken into consideration all the other factors that go in to your compensation, such as health insurance cost, vacation & sick days offered, number of hours in the work-week and what more might be ‘expected’, retirement or 401K benefits, company perks (tuition reimbursement, lunches, gas for your car, expense reimbursement), bonuses and future raises? You need to get a full picture of all options to decide which would be better able to achieve your long-term goals. Another good thing to keep in mind is: where do you want to be 10 years from now in job description, title, income, responsibilities, benefits, and fun do you want to be having. Then, is this decision to stay or go going to put you closer to that vision?
How do I turn adversaries into allies? And will that help me generate more sales?....Or, get more productivity out of my workers?
No adversary is going to help you, give you sales or be more productive for you unless they are forced to, so a better idea is exploring how to move someone from an adversary to an ally. Everything is possible with an ally.
So the issue becomes how do you re-create your relationship so the other person feels like you’re on the same side? Happily, there are several ways to do that.
Have a mutual enemy or problem to solve. Nothing like the camaraderie of fighting in the same fight to make two people (or a whole group) band together for the common good against the common enemy. If your adversary perceives you as on the same side for the same cause, you’re home free and can build on that shift.
Make it personal. We all feel our enemies ‘don’t understand us’. How could they? If they did understand or know us, there’s no way they wouldn’t like or respect us! Get to know them, understand their perspective so they feel heard.
Find what you can agree with and make it grow. Often people who think they are in complete disagreement find there may only be one part of the topic they don’t agree on - and once that’s settled, the argument can become much less or even disappear.
Understand FIRST, agree SECOND. A great way to disarm an adversary is ask, “you know, I don’t see it quite that way, but I’d sure like to understand why you do.” Genuine respectful curiosity goes a long way toward building trust and a relationship. Most often when people ‘disagree’ about something, it is more a matter of each of them not understanding the perspective of the other, not they they necessarily have factual matters of disagreement. Find out what you don’t know. Be sure you understand why your adversary feels/thinks they way they do before you start defending your position.
