Taking Command requires a great number of skills, each of which must be practiced and field-tested. But the objective of command is to attain an objective....to get what you want. If you've clearly visualized your objective, and have sufficient discipline to maintain your focus on it, the task remaining is to get there. And there are many ways to accomplish that mission. Every so often, I see command from a completely different perspective, which I am compelled to share with my readers. The more perspectives you study, the better you'll be at selecting the ones which are in accord with your personal style.
The following written piece which comes to us courtesy of Sandra (Levitin) Morgan, Kalon Women's Founder and Publisher, truly struck me as excellent. Morgan's growing readership audience is primarily women over the age of 40, but her market faces the same fundamental challenge as any other market: Getting what you want. Her article title caught my eye (it was direct and audacious), and I couldn't help but read the content. It speaks to the issues of focus, persuasion and tenacity as well as several other key skills needed to obtain command and control, but not in the traditional military sense.
Incidentally, while I am not a woman entering my prime, I am, Sandra, a man who knows when he is getting excellent advice. You can subscribe to the magazine if you meet the target demographic - I obtained my subscription by cleverly camouflaging my identity.
The article, written by Karen Keller, Ph.D, appeared in the October, 2011 issue of the publication. My outline of her article follows:
1) Recognize what you want. Be certain that it is something good for you, your growth, your gain, your happiness, the furtherance of your objectives. Half-hearted wishes are not powerful desires or intentions.
2) Ask in an optimistic way. Clearly state the benefits to the other person as well as those for yourself. Undisguised selfishness and one-sided bargains never, ever work.
3) Ask the right person. If you are not speaking directly with the individual who has the authority to deliver what you are requesting, you are wasting time playing your practiced Stradivarius for an audience of bartenders (a terrible but memorable metaphor). Get to a decision maker who can give you what you are asking for.
4) Expect to get what you ask for. Believe in yourself, your worthiness and your request. Visualize success. Anticipate a "Yes!" You are not a beggar -- you are a negotiator and a deal-maker.
5) Don't stop asking. If you don't get what you want, continue to ask. If you give up and walk away, you are, in a way, sending a message that your request was either unrealistic, or unimportant. Persistence is a virtue. Persistence adds validation. When I was a university professor, I would tell my students that part of getting what you ask for sometimes involves wearing the other person down.
Part of getting what you want is, plainly put, keeping at it.
Douglas E Castle
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