Tweet

Having your cake and eating it too

Guest post by: Howard Miller

Article Overview: A common trap and pitfall for managers to avoid

Having your cake and eating it too

Do you find yourself or others using phrases which you really don't understand?

One of my clients is climbing the management ladder at his company, taking on more responsibility and more ownership.

Looking at how best to deal with direct reports of all levels, from the outstanding to the mediocre to the below average, always presents challenges.

While focused on a discussion on one of his reports, I said it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too.

His response was he never understood this statement. Who wouldn't eat the cake if they had it?!

It made me pause. While I can't remember the exact reason I said this statement I do know I was using a common expression which, in a general way, means one thing and I didn't consciously think it could mean anything else. (According to Wikipedia, the expression having your caking and eating it too is similar to the phrases, you can't have it both ways and you can't have the best of both worlds.)

But the reality is catch phrases don't mean the same thing to everyone. The assumption they do leads to misinterpretation, miscommunication and judgment on the expression.

I was fortunate my client communicated (and challenged) me on the expression. It got me to rephrase what I was talking about.

But how many of our direct reports will not say anything, yet interpret the catch phrase differently then how you mean it? What could be the consequences?

When we think about common phrases we use before or while we use them:

• We can explain what we mean when we use that phrase
  
  We can ask the person we're talking to how they interpret the phrase
  
  We might not use the phrase! Then we can start having our cake and eating it too!
  
  

Related Articles
  The Cake
  Discover the Benefits from the Most Ignored Resource
  Starting Your New Cake Decorating Business
  Choices for Life
  Happy 6th Birthday, Fearless Competitor!
  Learn The Fundamental Rules Of Selling, Use It In Your Copywriting And Get Everything You Want In Life!
  Charismatic Leadership and a Piece of Cake
  Nicolas Cage loses Control
  Think it, Believe it and Lose it - Easily!
  What To Post Or Not To Post
  Identify Your Eating Triggers
  Selling in difficult market conditions
  Rule #2 - Making Money In Business
  From Bowling Green to Seeing Green: The Early Years of Duncan Hines
  How to get Exposure for your Direct Network Marketing Business
  Eating Healthy Can Save Your Life and Money
  Strawberries Do Crunch
  Write a Book One Piece at a Time
  Monginis plans 50 outlets pan-India by 2010-end; seeks franchisees
  3 Main Ingredients of an Automated Home Business

Article Tags: communications, manager traps to avoid, motivation



Related Forum Posts
Re: Hi there - Hi drdony and ideasuniversity.. Thanks for your help.. (: I dont know what is my passion.. How to find it ? But, i have idea to produce Dogs or Cats birthday cake.. Because i realy love animals, and i can cook well.. I think its a good bussines opportunity.. Because, i live in Bali. Here are many people who keep dogs and cats, and I did not find anyone who provides a dog's birthday cake here, except in Jakarta (other city, different island), *you know if Indonesia is large. I just need dare to try and collect references from people of other countries that have been doing this business.. How do you think ?
Re: Moderators on vacation - Kevin just reminded me about this thread. Sorry I didn't post here about my long vacation, however, it wasn't planned. As you know Israel is a very small country, and you can drive from north to south in 10 hours, 12 if you take a break. Most of my vacation was spent on visiting my family driving every day to another city, and eating a lot. Our holidays are all about eating, If you don't have a 5 meal dinner, you can call it a holiday. This is the start of the holiday season, and I will be on and off until the end of May, starting Next Wednesday (April 29), we are already invited to 3 lunches. The best thing is that I don't have to cook.
Re: How can you fix your damaged image? - I think the strangest thing about the Maple Leaf foods recall is how victimes experience the bacteria's effects 40 something days after eating the contaminated food. In addition, some of the people who died were also old... so did they even really die from the bacteria?? I mean, most of us can't even remember what we ate yesterday, let alone 40+ days ago. And could some of the complaints simply be the result of a placebo effect or attempts to win lawsuits? For instance, if you drank some milk and then later heard on the news that it "might" be contaminated, your mind may lead you to believe that you're sick and then you'll vomit, etc. I've seen people type on their office computers, open restaurant or washroom doors and then go on to eat with their bare hands... and I'd think that's more dangerous than eating Maple Leaf foods in the future.
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - [quote="Tim Stokes":3kkqwdng]My biggest challenge is time. Since I still have a full time job it's really hard to make the time to do the things that are extremely important for an online business. After working 9 hrs. in the real world I'm usually too exhausted to do any work when I get home. Speaking of which, gotta get up in five hours, nite all. Tim.[/quote:3kkqwdng] Hi Tim, Would it be possible to find a full-time job with less demanding hours? The only other alternative would be to increase your energy levels through exercise/healthier eating or to re-prioritize your time outside of work. One will be surprised at just how much more energetic he/she will feel after eating a tuna sandwich (or chicken entree with brown rice and salad) as opposed to fast food.
Re: Identifying a Scam - [quote="localnumberone":n4e20x6i]Thanks for sharing this. Will this also work for the other countries?[/quote:n4e20x6i] I've had some silly questions in my time but you just took the cake


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Ask All to Buy!

Designing Employee-Enhancing Training Programs

What is an Adaptive Organization

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.