Natalie Canavor. - Workplace Genie: An Unorthodox Toolkit to Help Transform Your Work Relationships and Get the Most From Your Career

Chapter 1

WORKPLACE GENIE AND YOU

T odays workplace is an unhappy place for many people. Almost 70 percent of employees say they feel disengaged with their jobs. And almost always, the reason is summed up in one word: relationships. So if you feel

Unfairly treated at work

Undermined by a coworker

Paralyzed by criticism

Cowed by an abusive boss

Frustrated by your inability to advance

Victimized by office politics

Youre not alone! Most people feel that way at times. Even if your situation is less extreme than those on our short list, you may feel stuck in place or unsure how to speak up for yourself. Or you might feel like an outsider in the office and wonder why you dont relate to your coworkers, or you might suspect your people skills are hampering your career.

What if you had the resources to improve your relations with the boss, coworkers, and other problem people? What if you knew how to initiate change in your own situation and alter other peoples perceptions of you?

You do! Most people own the inner resources to deal effectively with workplace problems and people. But they havent developed strategies to connect with those capabilities and use them with confidence.

Workplace Genie will show you fresh ways of seeing and acting. The approaches may seem surprising and even unorthodox at first glance, given our entrenched patterns of thinking about the workplace, but theyre based on sound psychological principles. We'll help you understand your own past experience so you can vanquish the ghosts of earlier situations you mishandled and no longer have to worry about repeating your mistakes. Well give you specific techniques for taking the lead to improve your immediate work relationships. And well equip you to create good relationships in your future career stops, whatever direction you take.

What we wont do is give you a set of formulaic approaches that involve labeling other people as types, or tell you how to outmaneuver an opponent. Nor will we fill you with clever responses that may make you feel good in the short run, but short-circuit your ultimate success.

Our goals for you are more ambitious. We want to:

Open up your perceptions so you see the world around you and other people more accurately, and more deeply.

Free you from false ideas about your own limitations.

Equip you to assess your options realistically and creatively.

Empower you to deal confidently with difficult people and situations.

Enable you to bring out other peoples better selves.

And most of all, we want to show you how to know and bring out your own best self.