When managers ask subordinates to take on an assignment, it is often a sign of their confidence in an employees’ abilities and reliability. The same goes for when colleagues ask each other for help. But sometimes those extra assignments can cause an employee to become less reliable if the workload becomes too burdensome. That can cause the quality of an employee’s work to falter or they are forced to work an insane amount of hours just to get caught up on their to-do list.
Why are you avoiding a difficult conversation? Because you don’t want to deal with the truth? Because you don’t want to deal with an awkward conversation? Take heed from this raccoon story—avoidance only allows the problem to get worse.
Research shows that appearance makes up 55 percent of your audience’s overall perception of you. 37 percent of their perception is based on how you sound, and 8 percent is the actual message you deliver. This doesn’t mean your message doesn’t matter. It means the group you’re speaking to is forming opinions about you before you even start talking.
