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 Publishing > Article |
 How do you say What you say
By Shelly Carlson, Caarlsson Productions
I want to speak to the manager! In almost every business
every
employee is a manager with many people to manage.
How effective are you?
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Do they know what you want them
to do? Or do you make
them guess?
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Give everyone a clear and accurate
job description?
Describe the job; this job requires…. List the requirements
instead of using Your job is ….
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Be specific about the steps required
to complete the job.
Give a time line for the job. Explain the results you
want.
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Do they know how to do the job?
Do you assume they have
skills they may not have?
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Training is the key to success.
Choose one person to do
the training or be responsible for all training, supply
the
materials needed for referencing and test for training
effectiveness. Be the sort of trainer you would have liked
as your first grade teacher, kind, patient, never disparaging.
Remember algebra class, you thought you were the only
one who didn’t get it until grades arrived that is. People
don’t like to ask questions in a group setting for fear
of
looking foolish. Often the slow starter will prove to
be
very loyal particularly if you were patient with him/her.
In our tight job market we need every able body.
Put yourself in his/her place.
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Why should I do it that way? My
way is better.
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Have you explained the relevance
of the job? Remember
how you reacted to these words: “Just do it the way I
told you to.”
If one understands why a task is being performed in a
particular way he/she is more likely to comply.
“I know this seems like a long process, but it makes our
billing so much easier.”
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Is his/her way potentially better?
Try it, it might be. “Every
time a new wife prepared a roast she cut off the tip and
then
roasted it. Her husband asked why. She replied, “That’s
the
way my grandmother always did it.” “Did you ever ask why?”
said the husband. “No, never”, she said. “Why don’t you
ask her”,
he said. The wife called her grandmother and asked.
The grandmother replied, “My roasting pan wasn’t big enough”.
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Be open to innovation instead of
immune to change.
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If her/his idea doesn’t work convince
him/her to embrace your
idea, don’t order her/him.
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Do you give her/him a clear understanding
of which task is
the most important?
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Number the tasks in order of importance,
thus avoiding your
colleague choosing the one she/he likes the most or thinks
can be completely quickly.
- I guess I’m doing okay, she leaves me alone.
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I was acting in a play with a very
contentious husband and wife as
leads in the play. My director never gave me any feedback,
by the
end of the week I was sure he was sorry he had hired me.
I approached him meekly and asked if I was doing anything
wrong.
He replied, “Shelly, I hired you because I knew these
two would be
difficult and I could count on you; you’re doing fine.”
Every night
after rehearsal he would pat me on the back and give me
the
thumbs up sign. That’s all I needed but I did need that.
I felt great
and he didn’t have to expend any extra energy. Remember
this if
you feel here’s another person who needs hands on all
the time. P.S.
I don’t know if it was the 36 inches of snow in Buffalo,
New York or
the empty theatre, but said contentious couple divorced
when the
play closed.
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If you don’t give regular feedback,
when you do, it is probably
because something is wrong, thus subjecting yourself to,
“The only
time he talks to me is when something is wrong!”
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Focus your feedback on the job,
not the person. “This job is
very detail-oriented; you have been successful with this
part.
What can we do to help complete the other aspects of the
job?”
You may have noticed and perhaps to your irritation my
use of
he/she rather than them and the term this job requires rather
than your job. Neutral language reduces any feeling of gender
chauvinism and judgment. How do you feel when someone says,
“You should have…?”
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