It Takes Courage to Hold Your Ground
It takes courage to hold your ground, whether you are in leadership or not. But as a leader, you often must defend your point of view with your peers, vendors, customers, and Directors. On the personal side, you may even have to defend your ground with your own family. Holding your ground or defending your point of view doesn’t need to become an argument. Relationships don’t have to be lost and there is no need to have winners and losers. We need to learn to arrive at a middle ground where each party walks away feeling good about the conversation.
Disagreements are part of our daily lives both in the workplace and at home. In this blog, we focus on how leaders gain the courage to hold their ground in the workplace.
The Scenario.
Let’s create a scenario as an example of the process to demonstrate that it takes courage to hold your ground. Let’s assume you are a manager in a division of a company reporting to one of the top executives. There are eight managers, your peers, and you are all working on the budget for the next fiscal year. The company can only afford to hire four additional new employees. But all eight managers are asking for one new staff member due to recent growth. Your team is stretched to the max and you’re afraid you’ll lose valuable employees if you don’t get extra help.
Below are five tips to help you defend your point of view and hold your ground as a leader:
Do your research.
The first step is to do your research regardless of the topic you choose to discuss. To follow our scenario, you need to research the appropriate data to support your request for one new person. The first question executives ask when managers request for new staff is “why do you need more people?” The answer is not, “because my people are stretched to the max.” That won’t work.
The top leadership will only hear the complaint and not the real need for help. What you need is to respond with facts and data. Examples are volumes of products produced or manufactured, hours needed to support existing customers, or number of new customers supported. In customer service, track number of “tickets” opened, closed, resolution time, number of employees, and weekly hours worked. When you show the top leadership year-over-year growth in production or support, now they’ll understand. This is one way you hold your ground.
Know your subject matter.
You also need to understand and know your area. As the manager, your employees and leadership expect you to be the “subject matter expert” (SME). You don’t have to know the entire process, but you do need to know your part of the process well. What are you responsible for in the production of a product or regarding customer service satisfaction? It is difficult to hold your ground when you are not self-confident to describe what your area does. Therefore, ensure you learn your areas of responsibility well and can answer the leadership’s questions with certainty. Develop the appropriate reports and be able to explain them well to help you hold your ground during negotiations.
Have a win-win attitude.
It takes courage to hold your ground but when you have a win-win attitude it becomes easier to negotiate. When you walk into a meeting with your peers prepared with the right attitude, you will be better received by all. The attitude reflects in your tone, how you address others, and gives you favor with the team.
Improve your negotiation skills.
As you may have figured out, to hold your ground in any discussion, you must become a good negotiator. All leaders must learn to negotiate and understand how the process works which includes the tips mentioned in this article. Take every opportunity you can to improve your negotiation skills. Start with the small things where it won’t matter if you don’t get what you ask for. Then move on to bigger requests as you improve your approach and gain experience.
Be assertive and self-confident yet polite.
When you do your research, prepare with data, know your subject, and have a win-win attitude, you become assertive. Your self-confidence should not be perceived as arrogant but instead affirm your knowledge and prove you’ve done your homework. The top leadership will take notice of your behavior and approach – especially if you act politely and respectful of all involved.
Create expectations based on the final decision.
If you followed these tips and held your ground, and your request wasn’t approved, there is one last thing you must do. You need to create expectations based on the final decision. With your data and reports in hand, you can then explain some consequences the team can expect if you don’t get the extra staff approved. This is presented not as a threat but as a fact of possible results. This is an opportunity also to present other solutions and alternatives until you get the additional help needed.
Conclusion
It takes courage to hold your ground, but it is worth the try. Your employees notice when “you go to bat for them.” And that matters a lot. It gives them the courage to continue working while short staffed. It may even help the team come together to brainstorm on possible solutions to improve efficiency. Sometimes these circumstances build the team and encourage them to work together better.