Call me: +31 (0) 6 23 031 090
Bel ons: +31 (0) 6 23 031 090
Years ago I was driving on the Autobahn somewhere in southern Germany. As you may know, there is no speed limit in Germany.
I was going about 150 km/hour and I was just overtaking some trucks. There was a troublemaker behind me. One of those that kept driving very close to me and turned on the lights. It made me completely nervous.
I couldn't go to the right either, because I was busy overtaking. When he finally passed me, I made a not so charming gesture.
And do you know what happened then?
He exploded.
He pulled in front of me and suddenly stepped on the brakes.
In a few seconds from 150 to 60 km/hour. And all the cars behind us, barely missed us. Can you imagine what the situation was like?
Fortunately, he took the exit after 10 minutes, but I looked in my rear-view mirror for a long time to see if he would come back.
A case of road rage.
Since then I have been very relaxed behind the wheel.
I let everyone go first.
Do you want to pass? I'll go to the right.
Do you want to move up a place in the traffic jam? Go ahead.
If someone cuts me off, I'm not going to honk. Because before you know it, you are crossing someone's boundaries
You never know what kind of person is behind the wheel. But the funny thing is; you also don't know what kind of person is sitting next to you at work.
Years ago I worked as a management assistant. I shared a room with a policy officer. A very nice man, but it later came to light that he had committed fraud. A case of a legal boundary. I was dumbfounded.
Or what about that branch manager who was caught stealing money from the cash register in the canteen? It just didn't occur to me that my colleague also did 'other things'.
You just don't know who is sitting next to you in the office.
All your colleagues are people with norms and values and a certain upbringing. And they all sit down at their desks at 8:30 am and take on the role of policy officer or branch manager.
If you work as a secretary and you also have to manage a team, then I assume that you know your team members well. But you too can be unpleasantly surprised at some point. It may happen that someone from your team (or a colleague) crosses your boundaries.
The kind of team member who always wants to be right and continues to push on in every discussion. Or someone who knows the company's rules, but still wants to question them. Now my question is: how do you react when someone crosses your boundary? Are you dumbfounded? Will you get furious? How should you, as a team leader, respond when someone crosses your boundaries?
Would you like to talk about this with a certified coach for half an hour, for free without any obligation? Send me a message and we will schedule a date.