Further application ...
Good post Toni!
Of course this has application in a lot of other areas besides, doctors, end users and outsource people. Most notably, empathy (remember, thats what we started off talking about?), also is needed when managers start making promises which their subordinates have to make good on. Too often these directives are issued without due consideration of other departments. Even when well-intended, they are often ill-conceived with no thought given to the impact on the people who have to carry them out. Rarely is any consideration given to the fact that the rest of the workload those subordinates are responsible for has not gone away just so they can attend to this new imperative. This most often occurs when said subordinates have multiple "bosses" who all feel they should be given the highest priority whenever they walk down the hall and demand something.
Here is where "managing up" becomes an invaluable skill. It can be most effective (and sometimes quite entertaining) to push these conflicting requests back up the ladder and have the "bosses" slug it out to determine who really gets top spot when there simply isn't time or resources to do it all.
