Oh, My Gosh! PowerPhrases Really Work! 221
After ten months with the company, I was promoted to a
support manager role within my team. Knowing this would
cause some tension, I took each of my team members aside and
spoke to them about the varying reasons for conflict. I told one
team member, Dana, in particular:
I understand that in the past we have had our differ-
ence of opinions. Due to my promotion we will be
working closer together. We don’t have to be friends
outside of work, but if we can work together in a har-
monious and supportive environment, that would be
good not only for me, but for the entire team.Dana spoke to me the following morning and said that for
the first time since I’d started, she respected me. She stayed
with the company another six months and then left to travel
overseas. In her final months with the company, Dana had cre-
ated a pleasant work environment within the company. As a
result, everyone on our team saw that it was possible for us to
all get along.
A PowerPhrase to Balance the
Workload
Dear Meryl: With the economic crunch, my duties have been
continually increased. Recently, my supervisor volunteered us
for another time-consuming duty. When he came to my office
to tell me I would have to tackle this new task and said, “You
will make this work easily and efficiently as you have with your
other duties...,” I let him ramble on about how he would like