Nate’s Notes 187: Teach People How to Treat You | Melody Wilding, Professor & Executive Coach

Thanks for listening to this episode of Meikles & Dimes. What great insight Melody shared, that we teach people how to treat us. And I love the techniques she taught:

First, we may be prone to over-apologize. But rather than over-apologize, we can simply say, “Thank you for your patience.”

Rather than prefacing a comment with, “I don’t know if this is a good idea,” we can say, “I believe we should try X.”

When setting boundaries, rather than just saying, “No” to a request, we can say, “I’m happy to make an exception this time.”

Rather than always trying to get to the point, we can share anecdotes and stories that will be much more memorable.

And to make sure we’re working on things that our managers value, we can ask questions like, “What do you wish you had more time to work on?” or “What could I do to make your job easier right now?”

In summary, remember that we’re always teaching people how to treat us.

It’s a simple idea. Please take it seriously.

Melody Wilding Bio:

Melody Wilding is an award-winning executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of Managing Up.  Named one of Insider’s “most innovative career coaches,” her clients include CEOs and managers at Google, Amazon, Walmart and JPMorgan Chase, among others.

A human behaviour professor at Hunter College In New York City, Melody’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and dozens of other media outlets. She is also a contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Psychology Today and Forbes.