Share the Love – Question Authority – December 18, 2017
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
My father taught me to question authority and to do the right thing in the process. Quite often the status quo makes absolutely no sense and needs much different thinking.
My father frequently challenged me and others around him to think differently. At times this absolutely drove me nuts. However, the outcome was tremendous growth, and freedom. It isn’t the people with whom you sync with who teach you the most, it is the ones who challenge you. Sometimes I could tell he knew he was doing this – but many times it was just who he was. He liked to have lively debates on a wide variety of topics. I enjoyed this level of exchange with him, most of the time. I’m not so sure though others around us enjoyed it all that much.
It was fascinating to watch him be the provocateur with others who didn’t quite grasp what it was he was doing. They thought he was stubborn and argumentative. He did not play fools well. If there was not a valid reason for someone’s behavior other than authoritarian rule, he would challenge their authority. He went to court to fight more traffic tickets than anyone I have ever known.
I very much appreciate this foundation as it’s given me the guts to stick up to change things that I feel need to be changed. This is part of what motivated me to write a book on Negotiations. I’m an engineer and call things as I see them. I didn’t like all the “games” that I felt happened in conventional negotiations. So I created a negotiations process that removes the games and helps all parties work better together to create more value for everyone. To celebrate my father’s love of questioning authority, use the promotion code questionauthority to take the 20 hour online Cheetah Negotiations class for $200.
“The first thing my boss said when I told him I was interested in getting my PMP certification was that if I was going to do it, he’d heard Cheetah Learning was the best.”