Bypassing the Boss

The relationship you have with your manager is critical. It is your utmost responsibility to always meet your manager’s requirements. Unfortunately, this can sometimes place you in a very awkward position. Managers are not perfect and you don’t always agree with their requirements and decisions. When you have such a disagreement, common sense protocol tells you to discuss the matter with the manager and make well supported alternative recommendations. Unfortunately some managers are not reasonable. They think their way is the only way and tell you, “Do it my way, or else.” Now you feel trapped and think the only solution is to plead your case to higher authority. So, you bypass your manager and go directly to your manager’s boss. No, stop! This is one of the worst mistakes one could make in the workplace. Never ever bypass a manager and go to higher authority. This is the quickest way to get in trouble with your immediate boss. It sets up an element of mistrust that is sometime difficult, if not impossible to repair. When your manager wants you to do something and you have a different way of doing it, show how your manager will befit by doing it your way. If that fails, then ask yourself the LEM question: “Is my manager’s way of doing it Legal? Is it Ethical? Is it Moral?” If the answer to these three questions is “Yes,” then stop arguing. Just do it and move on to the next requirement.

The Butterfly

I have a spot in my home that is my dream spot. It’s a new glassed-in porch with lots of sunlight and a beautiful view into the back yard. Yesterday I was sitting on a comfortable chair looking out at this gorgeous plant with bright red blossoms. Out of the blue came a monarch butterfly that started flitting from one bright blossom to the next just sucking up the nectar from those beautiful blossoms. And I said to myself, “That’s just like a supervisor going from one alternative to the next trying different things to fix a problem that has not yet been identified.” Wouldn’t it be great if every supervisor could learn that the best way to fix a problem is to define it first and then it would be easy to find the one alternative solution and fix it. It should not be necessary to be like a butterfly flitting from one alternative to the next trying to fix a problem that has not been defined. What do you think? Please share your thoughts.

The Crab Cake Sandwich

What a wonderful day this has been. I had the opportunity of a lifetime. I had lunch with my grandson who is a chef at a popular restaurant in Washington, DC. We met at a very nice place that serves wonderful food. As we sat down to eat my grandson asked me, “What are you having?” Without blinking an eye, I said, “You know what Jay, I’m gonna have the crab cake sandwich.” Now, when he asked me that question, I was able to answer it instantaneously. And the thought occurred to me how many times I have been in a restaurant and watched people spend precious time agonizing over a 10-20 page menu trying to decide what to eat. And I thought to my self, there’s got to be a way that a person can walk in a restaurant and make a decision in a reasonable period of time what they’re gonna eat. And you know what? That will eliminate the waiter coming every 5 minutes saying, “Have you made a decision yet?” only to turn away in disgust because people haven’t made up their minds. There really should be a way to walk in and, in an instant make a decision. I can compare this to the task of being a supervisor or a leader in the workplace. Many of them take an inordinate amount of time to make a decision. The employee is standing there waiting and waiting and waiting. But the supervisor just will not decide. Just like selecting from the menu there should be a way that people could make decisions quicker. They have all the information they need and they are not gonna get any more. So what do you think? What’s a good way to make a decision quickly? Share your ideas with me.

Motivation

In my work as a facilitator, I get a lot of questions about interpersonal relations between supervisors and employees. One question asked over and over is, "Given the lack of resources in this stressed economy, how does one find ways to motivate employees that do not involve financial resources?" I think it is key for supervisors to understand the first step to motivate employees is to find out something about them--what turns them on and what turns them off. We should then focus on doing as much as we can to turn them on and refrain from doing things that turn them off. Employees are motivated by praise, challenge, being in on decisions that affect them, as well as other forms of recognition that do not cost money. I invite other examples of actions supervisors can take to motivate employees.

"Cal, if I am having trouble with my boss should I move to a new job?" "Don't move yet because you might be the problem and if that is the case, you will only take the problem with you. Try getting to know your boss--expectations, vision, goals, strengths, weaknesses, communication styles, and motivations. Then try to change your own behavior so that it complements your boss and your relationship will probably improve."

Leadership

Last week I was facilitating a seminar for a group of new supervisors and one of them asked me, "Cal, if you were promoted from a position within your team to the position of supervisor, would you maintain the same social relationships with your friends that you now supervise?" I thought that was a very challenging question and had to think about it before giving an answer. I advised it would be unwise to maintain the same relationships because it might create a conflict of interest. Maintaining a close social relationship may create a morale problem because some of your employees may accuse you of favoritism.

Counseling Employees

I am Calvin Swartz, President of Progressive Success Corporation. I am a management consultant specializing in facilitating supervision, leadership, and management development seminars. I will be using my blog as a medium for exchanging views about techniques for solving supervisory and management problems related to interpersonal relations in the work place. This is the first one designed to get your comments and start a dialog about these relationships. In my seminars, I use unique names related to the issues to create interest and assist in describing the situations. I will be using these characters in future topics.
For many years, participants in my seminars have had the opportunity to ask me, "Cal, what would you do if...?" questions. In a recent seminar, a new supervisor, Ibee D. Nusuper asked, "Cal, what would you do if two people showed up late for work? I supervise 16 people in my new job. Last week, two of them showed up 1 hour late. To correct this problem, I called the whole team together because I wanted everyone to get the message I would not tolerate late arrivals. Did I do the right thing?"
"No, you did not do the right thing. Mass punish only aleinates those who did not break the rules. In the future you should first ensure that everyone is aware of the rules. Then when an individual breaks the rules, only deal with that person."
What advice would you offer Ibee? Was it appropriate to call the whole team together when only two people were late? Would your advice be different for other acts of misconduct? Please share your thoughts regarding this situation.