Well it seems like a secret art form to me. Maybe because I’m just now discovering it. What am I talking about?
Being a dick.
Yes, knowing what will get you where you want to go at the appropriate time is possibly a big secret to success. I was just thinking about this the last couple of weeks for some reason. Knowing when only being a dick will accomplish your goal and when being nice will work is apparently one of the most difficult things to master.
For example my manager at the volunteer place had to call someone, either the supplier of some medical shipment or the package carrier I’m not sure which, and be a dick about his dissatisfaction. It seems the carrier left packages at the wrong address, about a half block from the desired location, and my manager was going to make this right come hell or high water.
As in transfer me to someone who make this happen, a real live person, RIGHT NOW.
Keeping in mind this was 4pm on a Friday. By most other standards an impossible task to get a package delivery truck to come back, pick up some already delivered packages and drive them half a block down for a different building.
The manager accomplished this goal though. He did it. The package delivery truck did in fact come back, put all the boxes back into the truck, take them down to the other building and bring them all inside. He did this by knowing the only way to accomplish this goal was to be a hard ass about it.
In some cases being nice and courteous is the right course of action.
Of course some people are stuck passive/don’t fight back mode and are NEVER a dick. For instance a former room mate of mine once gave a friend-of-a-friend-of-friend his contact information. Six or whatever months later that guy calls my room mate and tries to sell him on some MLM scam or whatever it was. That would have been the PERFECT time to be “be a dick” and tell that guy to shove it. But he didn’t.
My current co-worker at the volunteer gig on the other hand seems to be stuck in difficult mode. No matter which outside entity he’s talking to he’s talking to them in probably the wrong sort of tone. And he never seems to want to escalate when the call isn’t going well either but that’s probably not related.
The point is some people are stuck in nice/agreeable/passive mode, some are stuck in difficult or for lack of a better term “be-a-dick” mode, but the truly successful people have mastered both ends and know exactly when to be which to accomplish what they are trying to get done.
Well I’ve recognized this so maybe that’s the first step to going int hat direction. Or perhaps that is an art I will never quite master. Admitting the problem is the first step, right?