Talk Your Way to the Top: How to Address Any Audience Like Your Career Depends On It

Key Learnings on How to Disagree with Your Boss and Not Get Fired

Do:

• Use words like “suggest” when dialoguing with your boss. No boss bristles at a suggestion. And it’s easier to embrace one because there’s no pressure.

• Be enthusiastic when you present your ideas. If you don’t like them, why should anyone else?

• Appreciate what is good about your boss’s perspective. Use the tie back technique. Build on what you both agree on and go forward together.

Don’t:

• Open the meeting with your idea. The boss wants to talk. Let the boss talk. Then marry your solution to what he or she is trying to do. That way you both win, and the boss thinks you’re terrific.

• Use the words, “but,” “although,” or “however,” in your communication. These words often act as erasers that negate what precedes them. If you are tentative in your dialogue, you’re giving your boss another good reason not to listen to you.

• Think you can be a winner without the boss on your side. When we go it alone, we often die alone.

• Tell your boss he or she is wrong. Misinformed, maybe, but not wrong. If you press too hard on that front, you’re gone.