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THE RIGHT WAY TO ASK MANAGERS AND OTHERS FOR WHAT YOU NEED
Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.—PUBLILIUS SYRUS
WHEN TOM’S BOSS ASKED him why he’d omitted Caren’s part of the team report, he’d replied, “I wasn’t able to get it from her.” To his shock and dismay, his boss told him Caren had already given her a draft and scolded, “Next time, ask her for her ideas.”
Tom opened his mouth, and then shut it, not knowing what to say. Caren, a shape-shifter, had thrown him under the bus—and she wasn’t even in the room. He remembered Caren’s response when he asked her for it. First she said, “I didn’t know I was supposed to write anything,” and when pressed by him, she matter-of-factly said, “I don’t have time,” and turned away from him.
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