Yeah, what if this happens? That is the name of this blog. The idea is simple. I am the manager and now I have to manage and this happens. Or perhaps there is something that is slightly different than what I expect. Think about that for just a moment. “What if this thing happens?” “I am wondering if it is supposed to happen that way.” “I didn’t want that to happen.” Sorry. Not really; it is what it is and we have to manage the hard stuff. “Yeah, but make it go away, now.” Welcome to managing and getting things done through others.
This is the first in a long winded series to share insight into the parts of management we either never learn about or they are simply the things we would rather someone else would take care of.
What if the other guy or gal offends me?
What exactly is offensive (these days)? I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s and nothing was politically correct. Someone said a thing, and it hurt sometimes and that was what you just had to deal with. Today, we have to be sensitive and be appreciative of someone else’s inner child. I am sure I have upset someone today as a matter of fact. The way I asked a question made someone think I was second guessing them. I wasn’t. I promise. I was just curious or just wondering or just wanting to know an answer I did not have before asking. That is our world. How do we manage this? How do we create a management platform whereby sensitivity meets practicality? This is really my first post? Yep.
Let’s be real. Sensitivity is wide line of sight. It could be an HR issue. It could be an easy leadership thing. It could be a medication issue. I will take the middle one. I am not an HR expert. I know there are federal and state possibilities in this “what if”. I am not that guy – look elsewhere. I am not a doctor of…well, what ails yah. I only research and design programs about management. So someone at the store offended you and now the manager knows.
First, if you did not hear it, look into it. How severe is it? It may involve some type of HR issue. You may need to align it with a policy or two. If there is no policy at fault, you may need to call the team member on what they did. It may just be some type of “I’m sorry, I didn’t know” or “Yeah, I know, it won’t happen again.” It may be a bigger discussion of “Are you aware of how something like that could be interpreted?” “What you said created a hostile working environment.” I cannot believe I wrote that last quoted statement, it hurts my heart I even had to say something so completely wimpy. Yes, it is wimpy. Part of this issue is the other party’s self-awareness. Maybe a self-worth issue? Get over it.
What if you heard it? Well, the action would be the same. The only difference would be the time frame in your action. It would be (and needs to be) a more timely conversation. What if they hurt my feelings? This will be hard for me to engage. I have my feelings hurt every other day. Between the news, what I do not know, bad customer service and someone forgetting my birthday or anniversary, I could have a monster-ously crappy day. Ruck up troop. Seriously, how bad can your day be that someone else “makes” you feel weepy? If someone had malice or intent in making your management day a “fecal” sort of day; yeah, I get it. But one thing out of context and the earth has now spun off its axis, really?
So what do we do? In management, you cannot plan for hurt feelings. Know that first and foremost, it is up to you to adhere to company policy as a base minimum. If anything falls outside that boundary, call someone who is administrating your HR-thing. If it is just a gosling between two adults, let them deal with it (unless they are not adults). Seriously, one of the things that drive me ‘batty’ is the realization that one person’s meaning and reason for being is subject to someone else and their gesture or word choice. If it affects the nature of the business, or impacts how a customer receives an experience, figure it out. Tag it right then and there. Tag the behavior which is unacceptable and let the attitude be. Do not coach the attitude, coach the behavior. Let them know you know what you know and that it is unacceptable to let the outside universe know you hate the other person. You both get the opportunity to figure it out between the two of ye’. And if the customer figures it out, then I have a say. Until then, you both (or more) decide, NOW.
To be fair, there is no right or wrong in this series. The very nature of this series suggests that it depends. And every single situation is absolutely, incredibly, instrumentally, hugely different than the other. For some reason, I can hear my dad saying “what the …?” Why would he say that? He is pragmatic. That means he is not idealistic (to a fault, he has an opinion and a philosophy). He does not worry about the artistic or intellectual aspect of, uh crap. He believes in getting the job done without the “touch-feely” things in the workplace. But hey, there are those who say we must be sensitive to others. It is not that he is insensitive, he does not have the time to worry about the stuff that need not be worried about in the first place. Rah, rah, rah! Relax cat-daddy, life is not that complicated. Due to our inclusive Facebook oriented world, we would like to fit everything into a nice, cozy box of reality and it is not that simple. Stuff happens. So let’s talk about it for a bit.
Sorry, did I offend you? Interesting, huh?
Cheers