Business Interruptus Fixes
February 2, 2018
My friend Susan was on a call with her multi-billionaire CEO client the other day and 15 of his (male) reports, when he interrupted her by shouting, “Time out! Time out!” Trouble is, he shuts her down like this all the time on their calls. And he does it to no one else. She had started to think this had something to do with her gender, given that she was the only woman in the group. And she had never confronted him about it.
Needless to say, this was stressing her out, and slightly pissing her off, so she came to my Workplace Power session where we practice how to stop someone in their tracks who is trying to interrupt you. (This can usually accomplished by saying, “Name-of-interrupter, let me finish.”)
Susan was reticent at first to call him out in front of his people. She thought it might put her account in jeopardy. But she resolved to do it (and came up with a football reference to help her when the time came). When that moment did come on their next call and Peter shouted, “Time out! Time out!” Susan said, “Peter, this is the fourth timeout you have asked for already and you only get three in a half. Maybe if you let me finish what I’m saying, you won’t need it.” Dead silence. Then muffled laughter from two men on the call. Then Peter: “Continue,” he said, and she did.
After the call, one of the senior men who had been present called Susan and said, “Susan, he shuts you down because you move too fast with your ideas. He can’t keep up. Frankly, none of us can. You need to slow down.” Hmm. That’s interesting. Peter wasn’t trying to oppress Susan on their call, he just couldn’t keep up with the speed of her brilliant mind. And because he was playing the “male power game” (which Susan also learned about in Workplace Power), his only face-saving option was to shut her down.
Now Susan has a read on the whole situation, has asserted her power, and knows exactly how to conduct herself on future calls to create an even better partnership with her client. All by speaking up. Oh, and as you can see, her account was never in jeopardy. She’s way too smart, and too valuable, for her client ever to let her go. And now she knows that, too.