Assertiveness Archives

Is My Boss Manipulating Me? 12 Signs To Look For

Workplace Experiences

Is My Boss Manipulating Me? Here Are 12 Signs Of A Manipulative Boss

Working in a toxic environment is what I consider a ‘silent killer’. Maybe you can relate to this. The effect settles in over time, not all at once. You start feeling less enthusiasm for your work. You start questioning you own abilities and skill. You take home a little more baggage with you each day. You’re working more to ‘keep up’. You feel worn out, tired, and Monday mornings are your worst enemy. You feel like you’re being drained of your life force one day at a time. Let’s get into the ways bosses manipulate employees, and what to do about them!

Pat Finnegan April 3, 2022

Project Manager Soft Skills

When Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Others, Do These 5 Things

Bad bosses are the bane of many employee’s existences. No matter what industry you work in, how old you are or even what your position is, the vast majority of us have dealt with a bad boss at some point in our careers. There’s plenty of ways a boss can be “bad”: poor understanding of the company’s needs, terrible at planning ahead, being clueless on what’s happening day-to-day, and so on. Situations like those are surely annoying to deal with, but few boss behaviors are more insidious than bullying. One common way bosses bully employees is through humiliating them in front of others. These reasons bosses behave this way are varied and complex, but one thing is for sure – we all want to put an end to it. If you’re wondering what you should do when your boss criticizes you in front of others, don’t miss the five tactics we discuss below.

Pat Finnegan July 14, 2020

Project Manager Soft Skills

How To Deal With A Coworker You Don’t Trust: The Do’s & Don’ts

Trust is a vital aspect of any relationship. This applies to our family, friends, romantic partners and coworkers alike. Just like our family and romantic partners, we must see our coworkers for an extended amount of time every day. In most instances, we spend more waking hours with our coworkers while working full-time than we spend with our families – that’s a lot of time at work! When we have great coworkers who we can trust, this doesn’t feel nearly as harsh as it sounds. What happens when we just can’t trust coworkers? It could be something they’ve done, rumors we hear or just our gut feeling – regardless, a situation like this puts a tremendous strain on our work life. In this article, we’re talking about how to deal with a coworker you don’t trust!

Pat Finnegan December 19, 2019

Project Management

Managing Jerks As A Project Manager: What To Act On & What To Accept

As Project Managers, we get the ‘pleasure’ of working with people of every variety. Not only are we expected to work alongside everyone else involved with the project, but we’re also expected to help them, answer questions and provide direction. Simple enough, right? Well, on paper it is. Management gets difficult when personalities begin to clash. Maybe a teammate thinks you’re stupid and doesn’t want to listen to you. Perhaps they think you’re too smart and are threatened by you. Even more vague – they might just not like you for their own reasons. While this seems like a big deal when it’s happening to us, it’s statistically inevitable – no one can please everyone. Manage enough people over time and you’ll run into difficulty with some. Today, we’re taking about managing jerks as a Project Manager, along with which behavior we should act on vs. let slide. Let’s get into it!

Pat Finnegan December 17, 2019

While most people appreciate others who communicate directly, many of us find it difficult to actually do ourselves. Information is exchanged efficiently, there are fewer misinterpretations and most comments are honest, so why is it that we feel uncomfortable speaking directly with others? This is especially important at work when we depend on others to perform our duties, and they rely on us, too. It's highly beneficial to adopt this communication style regardless of position or line of work - it's essential to living! In this article, we'll discuss some simple tips for being direct in the workplace, without being a jerk.

Project Manager Soft Skills

Being Direct In The Workplace, Without Being A Jerk: 10 Simple Steps

While most people appreciate others who communicate directly, many of us find it difficult to actually do ourselves. Information is exchanged efficiently, there are fewer misinterpretations and most comments are honest, so why is it that we feel uncomfortable speaking directly with others? This is especially important at work when we depend on others to perform our duties, and they rely on us, too. It’s highly beneficial to adopt this communication style regardless of position or line of work – it’s essential to living! In this article, we’ll discuss some simple tips for being direct in the workplace, without being

Pat Finnegan October 21, 2019

Project Manager Soft Skills

Managing Egos At Work: How To Decipher The Hidden Messages

Most people have more than one version of themselves inside. We have our rational minds – the part of us that’s calm, logical and conscious of reality, and then we have our ego – the self-preserving, survival-based irrational mind that is mostly based in emotion (feelings) rather than fact. Emotions like anger, frustration, disdain, jealousy and fear are just a few of the feelings that can trigger our ego to jump in and take over. While social pressures and societal standards incentivize us to be on our best behavior, our egos can still flare up in public, around others and yes, even at work. Humans have egos in part for survival purposes, but in current times, it doesn’t feel that way. We go to work to perform our duties and take home our pay, but that doesn’t stop us from being humans as we do it. Today, we discuss managing egos at work, specifically by deciphering the hidden meaning behind what egos are really saying.

Pat Finnegan October 15, 2019

Construction Process

Importance Of Negotiation In Project Management, With Examples

Life is full of negotiations. If we look closely enough, we can find strands of negotiating in nearly every situation we find ourselves in. Whether it be choosing a restaurant, debating opinions with friends or convincing a kid to eat their vegetables, we can find ourselves in a negotiation without even realizing it. In the world of project management, contracts and big-picture discussions come to mind when the word “negotiate” arises. This is not where a project manager’s negotiation skills end, though. I guarantee that every project manager is involved with at least one negotiation per day, even if it isn’t seen as one. So why is it such a necessary skill for PMs? In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of negotiation in project management!

Pat Finnegan October 14, 2019

Project Management

How Do You Run An Effective Status Meeting? 10 Best Practices

In offices around the world, people yawn, gaze at the clock and day-dream during meetings. Meetings are seen as boring time-wasters that keep us from doing our actual jobs. Most people would jump for joy if meetings were wiped from the schedule altogether. There’s only one issue – meetings ARE important, at least when they’re run effectively. Meetings are the only time when the team gets together. When run efficiently, these meetings give everyone the opportunity to brainstorm, ask questions, address issues and improve the business. Rather than scrapping meetings altogether, the best option is to maximize the outcome. “How do you run an effective status meeting?”. In this article, we’ll discuss 10 practices to maximize your office meetings!

Pat Finnegan September 30, 2019

It's a jungle out there. A concrete jungle, that is. While humans have evolved way past all other animals in a cognitive sense, we still need to navigate many of the situations that animals encounter in the wild. While many animals are categorized as predators or prey, people can also act in a predatory fashion and see other people as their 'prey'. Except in the human world, the predatory person doesn't eat their prey - they try to manipulate or take advantage of them instead. Predatory people don't see EVERYONE as prey though - they instinctively pick people they think they can exploit for their own gain. Overly nice people are one of the main groups people try and exploit, for reasons we'll discuss. Nice people aren't off the hook, though. Many times, they're not taken advantage of by just predators, but by everyone - and they ask for it! The workplace is one of the main places nice people get taken advantage of, and it affects workload, promotions, salary, reputation and more. In this article, we will discuss how to stop being too nice at work using twelve simple techniques.

Project Manager Soft Skills

How To Stop Being Too Nice At Work: 12 Simple, Quick Techniques

It’s a jungle out there. A concrete jungle, that is. While humans have evolved way past all other animals in a cognitive sense, we still need to navigate many of the situations that animals encounter in the wild. While many animals are categorized as predators or prey, people can also act in a predatory fashion and see other people as their ‘prey’. Except in the human world, the predatory person doesn’t eat their prey – they try to manipulate or take advantage of them instead. Predatory people don’t see EVERYONE as prey though – they instinctively pick people they think they can exploit for their own gain. Overly nice people are one of the main groups people try and exploit, for reasons we’ll discuss. Nice people aren’t off the hook, though. Many times, they’re not taken advantage of by just predators, but by everyone – and they ask for it! The workplace is one of the main places nice people get taken advantage of, and it affects workload, promotions, salary, reputation and more. In this article, we will discuss how to stop being too nice at work using twelve simple techniques.

Pat Finnegan August 29, 2019

Workplace Experiences

How To Not Get Bullied At Work: 10 Essential Tactics

Are you getting bullied at work? Do you feel like people take advantage of your good nature or friendliness? Do you find yourself doing extra work or being treated differently than your coworkers? You may be experiencing a form of workplace bullying. Luckily, there are tactics you can start using today to stop being bullied at work, and prevent workplace bullying in the future! Let’s dive in.

Pat Finnegan July 29, 2019

CATEGORY | Assertiveness

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Is My Boss Manipulating Me? Here Are 12 Signs Of A Manipulative Boss

When Your Boss Criticizes You in Front of Others, Do These 5 Things

How To Deal With A Coworker You Don’t Trust: The Do’s & Don’ts

Managing Jerks As A Project Manager: What To Act On & What To Accept

Being Direct In The Workplace, Without Being A Jerk: 10 Simple Steps

Managing Egos At Work: How To Decipher The Hidden Messages

Importance Of Negotiation In Project Management, With Examples

How Do You Run An Effective Status Meeting? 10 Best Practices

How To Stop Being Too Nice At Work: 12 Simple, Quick Techniques

How To Not Get Bullied At Work: 10 Essential Tactics

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