There are many managers today that have no clue about building relationships. They are usually the ones with poor communication skills. Here is typical manager and how he deals with a problem.
Bill (picked this name out of a hat) manages 18 people. One of Bill's employees, Mary (another pick), comes to work late just about every other day. Everyone else is punctual and if ever, they are rarely late.
How does Bill deal with Mary? He writes a memo out to the entire team reminding them of the company policy regarding coming to work on time. Bill even cuts and pastes the policy into his memo and sends it out to the group.
Forget what Mary thinks about this memo. How do you think the rest feel when they receive this document? I am willing to bet they are going looking at the local want ads or visiting the online job placement sites.
We are very good at avoiding conflicts. Running towards the battle is not our natural reaction. Not having a good relationship with a person makes facing the problem even harder. If Bill had been developing a solid relationship with Mary he could have avoided upsetting everyone else.
Next post I will share some of the "does and don't s" of building lasting workplace relationships.
2 comments:
So many things in life only work if we do the opposite of what comes naturally - otherwise there would be no need for training or counseling! This is certainly odd, but perhaps should tell us something about the nature of the world, or at least ourselves...
Yes! Exactly why true leadership is so hard. If this was not true our history books would be filled with ordinary people. Thanks for the comment. I hope this blog continues to be a source of help.
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