3 Steps to Keeping Your Job

Posted on March 17, 2010
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In this article we’re going to go over three things you need to do to keep your job.

1. Get Your Boss To Agree With You

2. Throw Down The Challenge

3. Admit Mistakes

How to get your boss to agree with you.

Admittedly, this takes some skill, and some bosses are never going to admit you’re right no matter what you say or do. You need to understand this going in. However, these tactics might just give you a fighting chance with the boss who at least has half a heart and isn’t totally insane.

1. Do Your Homework – The first thing you have to do is understand the nature of the work related task and the problem surrounding it. The more information you have, the better armed you will be. No, you can’t fake this…, which means…you have to know your job. If you don’t, you might be better off leaving in the first place.

2. Think Like Your Boss – Okay, this is not easy for some people. But you have to get inside of the head of your boss. You need to understand what makes him tick. Why does he think like he does? Why does he run the office the way he does? Find out what’s important to him. Play to his wants and desires and then turn them around to get what YOU want.

3. Prepare For No – Be prepared for your boss to say no. It’s going to happen. Not every idea you come up with is going to be a winner. Accept his no professionally and don’t be confrontational about it.

Ultimately, what this is going to do, regardless of how it turns out is that it’s going to help diffuse the volatile relationship that you two have. Do this enough and you just might find that things start to get back to normal. That’s of course if they ever were.

Throw Down The Challenge

This takes a lot of guts and can blow up in your face. But…if it works, you’ll finally get the piece at the job that you have always wanted. Yeah, it’s kind of an all or nothing proposition, but as a last ditch effort, it can pull your backside out of the fire.

1. Preparation – First thing you have to do is prepare. Let’s say you want to implement a new security protocol. What you need to do is completely map out the plan. You need to be able to walk into your boss’s office and say, “here it is” and present it with confidence. Make it obvious that you’ve really worked hard on it.

2. Throw Down The Challenge – Tell you boss that IF he allows you to go ahead with this plan and it doesn’t work out, you’ll leave. You won’t give your boss any problems and you’ll go quietly.

Now, here’s what you need to understand about this situation and when to use this tactic.

At this stage, your boss should be pretty close to actually firing you or driving you crazy enough to leave, so while it is an all or nothing proposition, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. You’re one foot out the door either way anyway. So this is your hail Mary.

Believe it or not…it works more times than it doesn’t IF you have your plan well thought out.

In other words…if you don’t REALLY know your job…don’t try this.

Admit Mistakes

Reverse psychology is a great thing and it works. In fact, it’s so simple; this tactic doesn’t need much explanation at all.

The normal course of events between a boss and an employee usually goes something like this.

Boss: You really screwed that up!

Employee: I did not. It wasn’t my fault!

Boss: Then whose fault was it?

Employee: The specs were all wrong!

And it continues on and on until eventually, the employee starts blaming the mailman.

Instead, try this.

Boss: You really screwed that up!

Employee: You’re right sir. I did. It was my fault and I promise I’ll do better next time.

And then present a list of ideas of how to keep from making those mistakes again.

Your boss will be standing there dumbfounded. He won’t know what to say to you in response.

Why? Because he will have been expecting you to make excuses. Now, his predetermined speech that he had in his head went out the window because the conversation didn’t go as he planned.

This is a great way to disarm your boss.

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