3 Positive Strategies to Deal with an Eeyore Vampire Boss

Ever find yourself striving to Work Positive and your Eeyore Vampire boss is doing everything he can to prevent it?

You’re in good company. Negative bosses—Eeyore Vampires—swoop in with alarming consistency on our coaching clients despite their best efforts to Work Positive.

How do you deal with them to increase your sales with greater productivity and get out of the office earlier?

Here are 3 Positive Strategies to Deal with an Eeyore Vampire Boss:

Select Your Battles
Your attempts to prove yourself right on the battlefield of negativity with your boss are like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. Resistance is futile. You waste precious resources, get tired of the war, and acquiesce to the dark side.

Instead, select your battles. The one battle you can win every time is the battle for your mind. That’s the one place where you have the final answer.

Consistently choosing to actively replace negative thoughts with positive ones is your antidote to the mental erosion of your boss’ negative barrage. Create a dynamic list of positive thoughts about business to crowd out the negative messaging of your Eeyore Vampire supervisor. Keep it on your tablet and smartphone for on-the-go reinforcement so you win the battle of your mind.

Set Your Boundaries
As you win the battle of your mind, you increase your odds of winning by setting boundaries in your relationship with the Eeyore Vampire boss. The most positive results-producing boundary you set is with the time you spend with him.

Get in and out as quickly as possible whether on the phone, an email, or in person. Invest the obligatory time—he’s the boss—yet treat him as if he has the flu. When you’re with someone sneezing and coughing, you back up and out of the room asap.

Negativity is like the flu. Sales decrease with less productive and you work longer hours. Your boss is the carrier. Avoid him as possible.

Adopt a “must go” attitude. Invest only as much time as is required with your Eeyore Vampire boss.

Steer Your Boat
You’re winning the battle for your mind by giving the Eeyore Vampire boss as little time as possible. In those times when you must talk with her, steer the boat of conversation.

She will talk about what you’re doing wrong and search for what’s not going right—the “sickness model.”

Steer the boat of your conversation to the “wellness model.” Your rudder is this phrase: “Yes, you’re right, and yet…” “Yes, you’re right” acknowledges there is room for growth. “…and yet” transitions to your positive results while avoiding “but” which is a mental stop sign of disagreement. Steering the conversation in this way empowers you to focus on the positive and filter out the negative as much as possible.

Yes, you can positively deal with your Eeyore Vampire boss as you select your battles, set your boundaries, and steer your boat of conversation as you Work Positive in the negative world.