Tony stood and smiled as Janice came in.  “Janice, It’s so good to see you!  I’m anxious to hear all about what has been happening with you over the last couple of months as well as see if we can’t figure out a few ways that I can help you advance your business goals.” Tony said.

“This is my chance to make certain Tony understands our relationship and roles.” Janice thought to herself.

Janice smiled as well.  “I’m always happy to work with people who want to help me!”  Janice said.  “You said that you had prepared some thoughts after our last conversation.”

“So she isn’t going to spend any time on relationship building.”  Tony thought to himself.  “All business and no social conversation is not a good sign for me.”

 “I need to get things moving again!”  Janice thought to herself as she walked down the hall to the conference room where Tony was waiting.  “I need to figure out what we can do within our limited budget and start moving.  The year is moving fast and I’ve done nothing that I can talk about in my year end review…  but WHAT am I going to get Tony moving on??”

Janice took a deep breath before opening the conference room door.  She was certain of the goal of this meeting, but still didn’t know exactly what she wanted to get moving.  “Oh well.  Let’s see what happens!”  she sighed and went into the room.

Janice was preparing for her first meeting with Tony since they had argued.  She had gathered enough advice to know that she needed to resolve her issues with Tony or else her job might be on the line.

She wanted to make it clear that she was in charge and that he would have to accept that she would veto any project that seemed like it was just running up her bill.  This shouldn’t be that hard. 

Yet, she was anxious and that wasn’t like her.  This was a routine meeting.  There was no reason for her to be feeling uncomfortable, was there?  The fact was that Janice wasn’t certain what direction to give Tony and had little confidence that she would be able to achieve the goal of making it clear that she was in charge.

“Maybe I’m not cut out for this job.”  Janice thought to herself.  “Maybe John was right and I’m only able to manage when I don’t have to make difficult decisions.”