My dad is a great speaker. When i was a kid I had a huge stage fright. I could barely speak in public. In school in my seventh grade, i would hardly be able to utter a few words. I remember a tip my dad had given among many others that, when on stage try to indentify the one or two people who can cause trouble by asking questions, early on in the speech and to look into the eyes of people while talking.
I took his advice then and I am glad I lost the fear of the stage. But in life i find there is always a odd man/wo man in every project i have worked on. This person’s sole job seems to be to cause trouble, to disagree or to argue for the sake of argument.
What a waste of time and energy working with such folks?. In some cases these are customers, some cases friends and in some colleagues.
If i put a dollar value to the amount of time spent in unnecassary arguements, i could be building a mansion for myself by now.
Here are some symptoms of such strange characters
1) they tend to talk abstract. They talk to the wall or the door instead of talking to you on your face
2) they agree to what you say in front of you, but once you leave they clap thier hands and do what they want.
3) they have power positions and take full advantage of that.
4) In order to cover their weakness they put the blame you.
5) They are typically in the same rank as you are at work and do not like the fact that you are in the same rank as them
6) They dont tell what they dont like about you directly, but complain to their boss or your boss to get rid of you
To Err is human -but with the odd man to err is a complete waste of time.
Find this person early on, there is one in every project. Have a plan. Stay clear of the OMO ( Odd Man OUt) if at all you can
So long….