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Springfield, MO |
July 19 |
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El Reno, OK |
July 20 |
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Baraboo, WI |
July 27 |
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Rice Lake, WI |
July 28 |
Call Rebecca at 1-800-538-4595 for
any location. |
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“You take people as far as they
will go, not as
far as you would like them to
go.”
—
Jeanette
Rankin
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Dear Glenn,
What is a diplomatic way for me to address my owner/boss
(I am a Regional Manager) about his lack of handling
major issues in a timely manner, or allowing/supporting
his management staff to handle?
Lori in GA
Dear Lori,
It's called Reverse Delegation, and it works like this:
1.
Begin the conversation with "I need your help"
2.
Leave out the word "you"
3.
Explain that you see how much he has on his plate, and
which issues you'd like to take from him. Explain that
these are issues you can handle, and this will free him
up to spend his valuable time on more important issues
that you can't handle, and only he can.
If
he says no, you've done all you can.
Thanks for your question.
Glenn in Nashville, TN
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Glenn's Personal Blog
Click on the gold
pen to see what Glenn's on a
rant about now |
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Last week I had to drop one of the
speakers from my Google Adwords coaching group, because he
failed to turn in his weekly progress report on time again.
I told him how disappointed I was
that he let me down after I invested six months into helping him
launch an online business (his existing business was
struggling).
Instead of simply thanking me for
what I had done for him, or apologizing for not keeping up his
end of the deal, he sent a snarky email accusing me of using
“psychological tactics”, letting me know how I “rubbed him the
wrong way”, and how a real friend wouldn't do this to him.
Hmmm. I put him on the path to a
six-figure income, he didn’t do his homework, and I’m the bad
guy.
I laughed about it, because I’ve
experienced the same thing many times in the 25 years I've been
in management.
The best part about being a
manager is helping people succeed. The worst part is seeing them
fail.
Because no one who cares about
others likes seeing them fail, it’s easy for managers to cross
the line between helping an employee, and becoming an enabler by
putting off the inevitable.
Yet no matter how much an employee
deserves to be fired, managers often feel the same sense of
disappointment, failure, and even depression that the terminated
employee feels – sometimes more.
To make it worse, the terminated
employee often tries to manipulate the manager into feeling
guilt.
One of the most common tactics is
“ I thought we were friends”. But you cannot be your employees’
friend, at least not in the truest definition of the word.
Friends are a pier-to-pier
relationship, while managers are an authority figure in their
employees’ lives, just as parents are in their children’s’
lives.
This is why the most important
qualification of being a good manager is the same as being good
parent – you must be willing to be unpopular.
I once asked the owner of a very
successful Florida seafood restaurant what his secret of success
was. He gazed intently into my eyes and very solemnly said,
“Glenn, I discovered many years
ago. Somebody has to be the Son of a @#%$*!”
Nobody likes being the bad guy,
especially when you’re not the one who did something wrong. But
then again, management is not for sissies.
To Your Success,
Click here to
comment
on today's issue.
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