In your business career, have you ever sat across from a person old enough to be your grandparent who screamed at you until they were blue in the face? I have. I closed a huge deal with a publicly traded commercial real estate firm where the obsessive-compulsive CFO painstakingly reviewed each and every invoice line-item by line-item. According to his math, our six-figure invoice was over by — I kid you not — $1.27, and he wanted to know WHAT WAS GOING ON?!
He called me into his office and proceeded to rant and rave and scream and holler and demanded to know why he was being overcharged $1.27. Luckily, during Marine Corps bootcamp, I had been “chewed out” by the world’s finest Marine Drill Instructors and had a very thick, impregnable business skin. It would take a lot to crush my motivation.
What would you have done, or have you done, in a similar situation?
Here is one solid game plan to help you make the right decision, to grow as a leader, and to tackle any workplace loudmouth: Apply Don Miguel Ruiz’s second agreement from his bestselling book, The Four Agreements:
“Agreement 2: Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.”
Now imagine everything you can accomplish, achieve, and attain in your business and life when you are immune to the opinions and actions of others?
GET INTO ACTION: Try this to move a stuck project forward. (1) For the rest of the week, print and post the above quote somewhere you can easily read it. (2) Choose one project where you are not getting the results you want quickly enough. Be sure you are super clear on the result you want to achieve — it must be specific and measurable. For example, “I will land four new clients in 60 days.” Avoid vague goals and statements like, “I want to make more money.” Get super specific. (3) Now get into action on your stuck project, embracing the fact that you are immune from the opinions and actions of others. Focus on achieving the end result without worrying about what others think or do. You’ll be amazed at the progress you make.
Just like I was amazed at how easily I was able to answer the CFO’s ranting and raving about the $1.27 overage on his six-figure invoice. I did it with such calm, cool, and collected leadership, that he approved another six-figure purchase order from my company. Boom.
If you have questions or want to share a story about how you productively handled a tough workplace situation, leave a comment below or hit me up on Twitter @mpveltri. And If you liked the ideas presented here, check out my keynote speaker website for more information: https://michaelveltri.com/about . You will find a whole lot more valuable tools and techniques to help fuel-inject your leadership, make better decisions, and reach a level of peak performance with balance, not burnout.