I mean the kind of people who always seem to have an agenda, always seem to be thinking about what they can get out of a situation, never tell you what they really think, and don’t seem to fathom that when you say something, you might actually be saying what you really think…
You know the kind of people I mean?
Our head of dept in my last company was like this – told one of her direct reports he should be ‘more political’ – but he was a genuine, competent guy who just wanted to do his job well and go home and didn’t appreciate the lack of respect for his own non-political style. I think the Head of Dept was just a paranoid and insecure person tbh.
There seems to be a lot of people like this (maybe my fault for choosing marketing as my profession of course!) – who just don’t seem to be able to believe that you’re being honest and always assume you have another agenda (basically transferring their beliefs onto you)
So how to deal with them? I’d prefer to just stay away but when they’re your boss or head of dept that’s not so easy…