Run, don’t walk if your Manager or Leader says the following:
You should have known.
- You know what happens when you assume. Leaders and Managers have a responsibility to communicate expectations clearly. Clearly. Over and over and over. Mind-reading is not a success formula for anyone.
- Managers Instead Ask: What is your understanding of the role / situation / norms / standards / expectations? What else should I know?
You are just too big for this group.
- Your talents are beyond their capabilities and are a threat to their order. Increase. Expansion. Growth. Ideas. Imagineers. Innovators are powerful. Necessary. Disruptors. Change Agents. Evolutionaries. The Future.
- Managers Instead Ask: You have so many amazing talents. How can I help you multiply / leverage / tap / feed / enable them?
You are too smart. You just need to dumb it down a bit.
- Let me repeat. Your talents are beyond their capabilities and are a threat to their order. Increase. Expansion. Imagineers. Innovators are powerful. Necessary. Disruptors. Change agents. Evolutionaries.
- Managers Instead Ask: I am here to help you advance your cause / project / point of view. What are some ways you can present that knowledge so that it is heard by different people? How can I help to sponsor that message?
Where are you from? No, where are you really from? Alternatively: When I get my nails done, are they talking about me? I think she talks like that because of where she is from.
- Document. And call HR.
- Managers – Just Don’t.