Dealing With Leverage

This article is not like my regular 'What you should have?' and 'What you should do?', it is based on the fact that you cannot always have the upper hand and you'll have to sometimes let go of the small things to achieve the big ones.

This post is based on the sole philosophy that, "You'll not always have the upper hand, but you should always hold the arm that it belongs to". My father says, "Words cost nothing but can mean everything".

Leverage Management as a Wheel:

This is a wheel, after so many posts, it is actually a wheel. Dealing with leverage is the best item in my bag of tricks. You cannot always be the one with the bigger stick, many times your lives would be at the disposal of others and that is the time you have to make sure those in power work in your benefit. Now, when I talk about dealing with leverage, I don't ask you to become a Yes Man or a Sycophant, but yes, regard those in power, there is a reason they have it and you don't.

Importance of Leverage Management

My personal experience says that you cannot utilize the influence of your superiors by insulting, or for that matter, not regarding their superiority. I will share an experience regarding an examination hall incidence. So, imagine a regular examination hall with a lot of students to give the exam and a couple of teachers to invigilate. As the exam progressed, this guy sitting two rows next to mine made some joke about the activity of a the invigilator, something regarding delaying the distribution of question paper, not the point of the story. Now, as she came up to me, I was prompt in receiving it and replied with a thanks and a smile. Later in the exam it so happened that he asked for a supplementary sheet to write and seconds later, so did I. Our invigilator had set our course to him and was nearing him but she changed her path and came up to me first instead. Now, this may seem trivial but you can imagine what the meaning is of a few minutes towards the end of an exam. Also, this little gesture made me realize that I did nothing out of the ordinary, but it did help me when she had leverage.

Now, here realized two things, respect others and they shall respect you, and what goes around, comes back around. These are petty things we leave about and come back biting our ass. Now, I could have been like the others taking my sheet, thinking that it was their duty to do so, give no reply and left unnoticed, but I didn't  I got noticed and that helped me where I didn’t even think. People want love and respect, we all are hungry for it, never gloat of what you are and never undermine the achievement of others that if they get the opportunity to ruin you, they don’t even hesitate.

Maintaining Quality Professional Relationships

1. Break the Ice: Initiate conversation with the one in power, those in power, in illusion of power would be a little hesitant to come up to someone below their stature and to get things done, you'll have to let them know you exist. Break the ice with little empty talks, or small talk, and be memorable, don't break ice with insults.
2. Smile: Now, it may seem highly obvious that we should smile and often we are in the illusion that we do it in high frequency, but we do not. Smile is the first step for registering positive thoughts about yourself in the mind of others. When I meet old acquaintances and am not willing to talk, I smile at them and they themselves initiate conversation, now that is the effect of a simple smile, it can change the outlook of people towards us.
3. Respect the Authority: What little authority people have over you, respect it, there is a reason they have it and you don't. Often times people get the validation that they're living a respectable life due to the limited scope of authority they have, in other words the authority that you may disregard is the one they achieved over their life’s hard work and measure their success with. It is common that people get beat up by cops for disregarding them. Now, I’m pretty sure that you’d have met someone whose some relative is some kind of powerful person and they badmouth cops because of it and the cops without any regard to that relative beat the shit out of them, it is common place in my locality at least.
4. Charm Them: Now, Charming people would seem awfully difficult and improbable, as it is difficult to determine what constitutes charming. Rest assured, I’ll tell you. Have a Charisma. Carry an aura of positivity and respect, treat everyone how they’d like it. Now, I don’t ask you to pay unnecessary efforts to please everyone, not make people feel they’re the only thing in life, but make sure they know that you regard their relationship.
5. Troubleshooting: Critically analyse your relationships, if they're long term, there are bound to be troubles, try to detect them early and work upon them to not let them ruin the relationships. An age old proverb by Saint Rahim, that implies that Relationships are like weak threads, don't test their endurance, if it breaks up, even if you join it again by tying, the resultant wouldn't be the same smooth thread.

A simple rule in dealing with those who are hard to get along with is to remember that this person is striving to assert his superiority; and you must deal with him from that point of view.