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Years ago I drove on the Autobahn somewhere in southern Germany. As you may know, there is no speed limit in Germany.
I was driving about 150 km/h and I was just passing some trucks. Behind me was a pusher. One of those that kept riding very close to me, full lights and then distances himself again. It made me very nervous.
I couldn't pull over either, because I was just overtaking 3 trucks. Apparently I didn’t do that fast enough. Because when he finally passed me, he exploded. He drove in front of me and suddenly stepped on the brakes. Can you imagine? We first drove 150 km/h and suddenly back to 60 km/h. And all cars whizzing past us and honking. And that man only swears German curses at us. Fortunately, he took the exit after 10 minutes, but I looked in my rearview mirror for a long time to see if he didn't come back after all. A classic case of road rage. Since then I've been über relaxed behind the wheel. I let everyone go first. If you want to pass me, 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 will cross the line with someone.
You never know what kind of person is behind the wheel.
But the funny thing is; you don't actually know what kind of person is sitting next to you at the office.
Years ago I worked as a management assistant at a company. I shared a room with a policy officer. A very nice man, but later it came to light that he kept a double administration. I was dumbfounded.
Or what about that branch manager who was caught stealing money. It just didn't occur to me that my colleagues were also doing 'other things'.
In fact, 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 an assistant and you also have a team to manage, then I assume that you know your team members well. But you can also be unpleasantly surprised.
This does not necessarily have to be by criminal or aggressive behaviour. It can also be a blunt remark or an insult. So someone who crosses your line. The kind of team member who always wants to be right and who keeps on rambling in every discussion. Or one of those who knows the rules of the company, but still wants to question them. And if you ask someone to do something, she says: "You can do that yourself, can't you?" What are you going to do hen? Are you going to say: I am the team leader here and I decide? Are you going to explode? In other words, how do you react when someone crosses your line?
Would you like to talk about it to a certified coach for half an hour without any obligation? Send me a message and we'll schedule a date.