Mayday Nora Klaver

Nora Klaver

Mark Worden (Standard British accent):

The February issue of Speak Up features an interview with Nora Klaver, author of Mayday! Asking Others for Help in Times of Need. In this “out-take” she offers a practical example:

Nora Klaver (Standard American accent):

There’s a client of mine, she was a vice-president in her organisation and her name was Jane and Jane wanted to be promoted to the next level, but she got passed over for that promotion and she had to work with the man who got the position instead of her, so she was filled with resentment about it because she really felt that that was her job, but now, all of a sudden, she was going to have to work with this man. So what we did was we prepared her to work with him and we thought about “OK, what is it you need, do you feel justified in asking for help?” and, yes, she did. She had faith that things were going to work out just fine, she did ask this man for help and what she did, actually, was shortly after he began in his new position, she went in to see him, sat down and told him, “I want your job in the next few years, what do I need to do to get it and will you help me?” And he was so impressed by her drive and her honesty and openness that he was very willing to help her and in fact they ended up creating this great partnership together and the best part of the story is that, two years later, he was promoted to another role, and she moved right on into that position that she had always wanted. So she was actually getting help from the man who seemed to have destroyed her dreams, but he actually helped her fulfil them and it wouldn’t have happened, unless she had asked him for help.