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Confrontation is certainly not the easiest part of being a manager. In fact, it’s probably your least favorite. It’s human nature to avoid interpersonal discord. Many people hope a problem just corrects itself without our intervention. But, is that manner of thinking really reality? How can you provide coaching for an employee, co-worker, or even your own supervisor and have it be a positive experience? We’ve all heard of “The Supervisor Sandwich.”
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Jack is really good at what he does. He shows up on time. Gets his work done. He helps his co-workers. He’s efficient – a good “do-er.” So you decide to promote Jack to a management position. Now, he’s struggling and not meeting your expectations. How many times have we seen this scenario?At first glance, we might think it was simply a poor choice to promote this person into management. After all, we know that doing technical work is far different than managing people doing technical work…right? Maybe…Or it may be the person in the management position has not made the behavioral and attitude shifts necessary to be successful.
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In our line of work, we are asked to facilitate A LOT of classes on leadership! It’s a hot topic. Every company wants its people, especially management, to lead. And really, it makes good business sense to get your people demonstrating better leadership behaviors. The fact of the matter is, though, it’s not as easy as you think…there are a lot of issues that accompany the pursuit of leadership.Some people view leadership as a position. In fact, many believe that in order to be a leader, you must have a title that includes Chief, Manager or Supervisor. While we all hope that these positions include the responsibility of leadership, we all know that many with those with titles don’t always (or sometimes ever) demonstrate leadership behaviors.
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"A wise person once told me that you are the average of the seven people you surround yourself with. At first, this seemed like something out of one of those ‘guru’ books, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew this person was right. I was surrounding myself with people who depended upon me to show them the way; people who were seeking my approval and guidance. So I asked myself, “What now?” What I decided has not only helped reduce stress, but is changing my life for the better.
You should examine your life, take a look at the people around you and those that you choose to associate with regularly. Are there people that are dragging you down? Are there others that have potential, but just aren’t quite there yet? Examining those that contribute to your life and happiness is not an easy task, but once done, you will end up with two groups: the keepers and the throw-backs.
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Do you have a mentor? Do you encourage your employees to have mentors? Many companies have jumped on the mentoring bandwagon. What’s curious about this is how mentoring is defined by these companies. Before mentoring was in vogue, you could ask people, “Did/Do you have a mentor in your life?” If their response was “yes” the answer to the follow-up question, “Were they totally aware that they were mentoring you?” was probably “No.” However, they made a significant impact in the life of the mentee. So in other words, the mentee chose the mentor.
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