Howard Kaminsky - Magic Words at Work

contents

MANAGING SHOULDER
TO SHOULDER

DON'T WEIGH THE FACTS WITH YOUR THUMB
ON THE SCALE

For our magical friends
Paige and Ken
Melinda and Ealan
And for Susan Dooley Carey, the alchemist

acknowledgments

Grateful thanks to our editor, Kris Puopolo, whose wizardry guided us every step of the way. And to Steve Rubin, who was the first to see the magic. And to Susan, Dennis, Jessica, Dave, John, Julie, and little Celeste, who give us some of their magic every day.

preface

Business loves buzz words. From Norman Vincent Peale's Power of Positive Thinking to the recent Thinking Outside the Box, catchphrases give us new ways to view the world we work in. Some are particular to a profession, like the order issued in universities to Publish or perish, or the one journalists hate hearing from editors, Beef it up and boil it down, a harsh directive to make the story meatier in content and nowhere near as long. But the problem with these phrases, whether they are general or particular, is that they quickly grow stale. Familiar to everyone, they are devoid of any personal meaning.

Our first book, Magic Words101 Ways to Talk Your Way Through Life's Challenges, was the result of our collecting essential and powerful catchwords and mantras we used ourselves and had heard over the years from friends and colleagues. So we weren't surprised when the response to that volume of Magic Words included many letters telling us how our readers had evolved their own specific phrases to help them in their jobs. Or, as one person put it, I guess you could call them Magic Words for making money. We heard this from so many people that we decided to put together another volumeMagic Words at Work.

This book is divided into four sections: Managing Yourself, because until you understand and motivate this employee the game can't start; Managing Shoulder to Shoulder, which will help you focus on working and succeeding with others; Managing Up, to enable you to understand and deal with the crucial person, Mr. or Ms. Boss; and Managing Down, which provides you with time-tested Magic Words to help with the truly key peopleyour employees.

A man who owns a small business wrote us that he has a sign reading Low Overhead Equals High Independence to remind him not to take on the kind of debt that could crush his company. A woman who grew up poor says when her job gets rough she focuses on all the things she can afford to buy. She says she truly believes, The person who dies with the most toys wins.

And in case you are wondering why the two of us felt that our careers stood in need of Magic Words, it's because between us we've experienced almost every situation we've written about in this book. We have tired of one career and moved on to another, held high positions in some companies and worked for others where takeovers or mergers wiped out our jobs. We have successfully marketed our own ideas, hired people and fired them, found there were flaws in the way we managed some things and discovered useful tricks that helped us to handle others. In the more than twenty years we've been friends, each of us has helped the other through the satisfactions and disappointments that come with any career. We've always been there for each other, handing out kudos, compassionand occasionally kicks.

One reason our friendship has endured is our shared belief in the power of Magic Words. For two decades they have been a verbal kaleidoscope for usa twist of phrase here, a turn there, and suddenly we begin to see things in a completely new way. Once, when we were having lunch, Alexandra complained that she was having trouble getting the head of the company to listen to her ideas. Howard, knowing that Alexandra felt hesitant about putting herself forward in a new job, told her, Raising your voice can work better than raising your hand. For a moment, Alexandra sat there in silent astonishment. Was Howard really suggesting that shouting and hitting people were useful tools for getting attention? Then, in a single click of the kaleidoscope, she understood. She had let her timidity in a new job destroy her confidence. Howard's Magic Words were telling her that she was raising a hand, waiting to be called on, instead of being sure of what she had to say and raising her voice so people could hear her say it.

Some of the Magic Words at Work are useful guides to dealing with employees. Above Me Is No-Man's-Land is a way of warning staff members not to go over your head when problems arise. The words may sound like a threat, but they're more than that. They let the people who work for you know that a company has an organization chart for a reason. The place where a problem originates is the place where it should be solved.

One friend told us how his discovery of the Magic Words The Red Light Is On gave him time to deal with his own work problems without interruptions from his staff. Ready, Aim, Fire is another's mantra, and it lays out the course he follows when he has to tell employees that they're out of a job.

Other Magic Words are about the way we deal with our own careers. Martyrs Are Revered (but Rarely Rewarded) convinced someone else that there's a difference between working hard and working smart. The words Graduate with Honors are a warning that we never really leave a job behind; hard as this may be, it pays to exit smiling. Old employers have the power to send out letters that recommend us or to say that we failed on the job.

Lastly, there are Magic Words that tell us how to think about the world of work. Good Enough' Isn't is a quick way to remember that shortcuts won't get us anywhere; we should always do our best on the job. The Trumpet Is a Dangerous Instrument? Remember those words when you are about to sound your own horn. People who praise themselves will find that no one else will bother.

The lastand maybe the most importantthing we learned from our collection of Magic Words at Work is that work should be as satisfying as we can make it. When a close friend told us that the words that had guided her career were You Mean It's Not Fun Anymore? we didn't think she was being at all frivolous. Fun should be one of the many rewards that we get from our jobs. If you're failing to find it in yours, it may be that you need a little bit of magic to enhance your career.

ACHILLES WAS LUCKY

We've both known Sara for almost twenty years. Her creative ability and her strength as a manager have landed her a job as editor in chief of a top women's magazine, but back in the days when she was just starting out, Sara was a features editor at a small magazine. That's how Alexandra, who was working as a freelance writer, met her. She got a call from Sara, inviting her to lunch.

I've got an assignment for you, Sara told her. It's a little different from what you usually write.