Posted on: Monday, June 24, 2002

60 SECONDS ON BUSINESS
Asserting one's self need not be painful

By Dr. Drake Beil
President, Solutions Inc.

Do you think you have to make a lot of noise to be a troublemaker?

People used to say that silence implies consent, but sometimes, the most difficult people to deal with are the ones who won't say or do anything. These co-workers and customers cause problems in less aggressive and less apparent ways.

Call them "indecisives," "insecures" or "apathetics." The indecisive types like to slow things down to a crawl and indirectly force others to do their work for them. They have a long inner fuse and are comfortably wedged in the status quo. Actually, status quo would be progress because their effort level is minimal. They know what they can get away with.

The insecure types tend to avoid making decisions that involve a new idea because a fear of making mistakes is paralyzing. Apathetic ones won't make the decision because they don't care whether it's a good idea or not. They both spend a huge amount of their time covering their tracks and the rest of their time covering their butts.

When you discover someone is a passive problem, try to give them paperwork and documentation to raise their comfort level. Try to coach them through the disillusionment of being human, and to see that one must move forward to stay alive and that mistakes are part of the learning process. We must continue to learn what to do as well as what not to do, and then learn from it.

As Steve Jobs put it at Apple: "Make new mistakes." Because that's a sure sign of progress.

Reach Dr. Drake Beil at drake@60secondsonbusiness.