Gents,
So I recently got a promotion at work. I have been at this company for a while now, and thus have worked with most of my subordinates for several years and am friendly with them, but now, due to my new position, there’s obviously a power imbalance and just a weird dynamic that is starting to rear its head.
I have continued to be nice, professional, and courteous, but we are going to have a few fresh hires soon, including a few fresh out of college. So the pressure is on me to set these guys up on a good course for their career, and be a mentor, leader, and get the best possible results out of them, while of course respecting them as people.
Here are a few things I’ve thought of:
* Giving folks ownership. If something good happens, the company didn’t do it, the process didn’t do it, *you* did it. Alternatively, if you drop the ball, what are you going to do to fix it?
* Complimenting folks by telling them that they are doing a good job and earned their paycheck
* Actually caring about people, but also respecting boundaries. I’m happy to be friends with anyone, but I won’t pry or for example, insist that people go out for drinks with me.
* Finding ways to help and uplift people in professional goals, instead of nitpicking and finding excuses to criticize
What do you recommend? This is mostly geared at men on this sub since my company is very male-heavy, but ladies, please feel free to offer your advice, criticism, and feedback, especially as it relates to the gender dynamic that does appear to exist in my worplace, and probably many, many others.
Thanks in advance!!
14 comments
You have a pretty good handle on it so far. Welcome to the middle management sector.
My management top tips:
– Praise in public
– Reprimand in private
– Don’t join in with the gossip and don’t encourage it
– Deflect the shit from above
– Encourage the quiet ones to contribute
– Contain your ego
Not sure if this is good advice or not. But I’d say make sure there’s solid training going on.l angle decent communication. The jobs I’ve had or seen the most frustration going on is because things were badly communicated and so the job wasn’t done right or has to be redone (sometimes several times because communication never improved just bosses got angrier), or a lot of the staff were never trained how to do the responsibilities they are suppose to fulfill. So when they do them wrong it backs everything up.
It doesn’t have to be you doing the training. Just that it’s getting done.
my advice is
Dont ask for better intentions.
Always assume people are giving their best.
Blame the process, not the man.
I would never personally trust a boss or coworkers in general, but what you’re saying sounds reasonable and like it would work on others. I would also say that when someone screws up or makes a mistake, acknowledge it and let them know it needs to fixed, but don’t harp on it either (unless it becomes a pattern or they refuse to correct it).
For me it’s believing in my abilities, showing trust and clear instructions. If my boss can’t communicate clearly with lots of misunderstandings I’m not motivated to give my absolute best
Understand your employees’ motivation for work. For me, for instance, I’m not interested in promotions because I’m at the end of my career. My goal is just to mark time at my current job until I hit my Retirement Age Goal. So, no, I don’t put in 100%, but I do get my workload completed. I’ll help others if they need it but I never try to inject myself in other people’s work unless they are obviously having a difficult time of it and I know something that they don’t or they’re trying to perform a 4-handed activity with just their two hands.
Let me restate that: know your workers, and arrange/assign the work to match their abilities. Some employees are highly motivated, others are happy just to meet requirements and some are just skating along, collecting a check. So, Top Performers get the toughest and heaviest work and the most latitude but also recieve the biggest and best rewards. Middle performers get the daily operational work but are pretty much left alone to do their thing. Low Performers get the lightest loads and the most micromanagement.
One thing I found out the hard way is that you have to find the balance between giving enough work and not giving too much. I was trying not to give too much work to one of my new staff, she thought I didn’t trust her enough to work on things and thought she might be losing her job. That freaked me out, but luckily good communication came to the rescue and we found that sweet spot
Treat them the same all year long as you are going to to on their performance review.
Pay me.
I want to help you. But there’s a bunch of other people in my life that need help too.
I just don’t want it to cost any more time or money to help you than is necessary.
Everything else is fine.
>I’m happy to be friends with anyone
I’ve found that as a manager, it’s much easier for me to not have super personal relationships with my staff. I’m friendly and in my department we do a lot of laughing and joking around, but I don’t open up about my personal life with the staff or spend much of my off-time with them. Occasionally we’ll go out for a drink after work, but it’s rare. The reason I say that is that as a manager, having difficult conversations or providing feedback is just part of the job. I find it’s much easier to do that if I’m not on really personal terms with people. It also prevents any perceived favoritism. I felt like even so, I was too open with my staff. Then one of them said, “You are friendly and talk to all of us, but I don’t feel like I really have an understanding of how you spend your personal time or what your life is like.” For me, that’s how I want it with subordinates. Friendly, but held at arm’s length to an extent.
I learned this the hard way. When I first started this job, it was my first management position and I *did* become very friendly with the staff. I find it’s much harder to provide feedback to the people who were here when I first started vs the people who started after I’d learned that lesson.
He can’t win my trust. I work for money, not for other people, if somebody gives me more I’m jumping ship no matter who you or the other person are
He can win my best efforts by giving me enough money and good working conditions. If I’m gonna be working 10-12 hours a day for minimum wage you can’t expect me to do anything more than bare minimum because I won’t do anything more than bare minimum
>Giving folks ownership. If something good happens, the company didn’t do it, the process didn’t do it, you did it. Alternatively, if you drop the ball, what are you going to do to fix it?
are you giving them a portion of the financial gains from these windfalls? or is it just a pat on the back? This sounds like an excuse to come down on employees when you need someone to take the fall
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>Complimenting folks by telling them that they are doing a good job and earned their paycheck
are they making enough money, are you going to proactively give raises to keep up or beat inflation? or will the employees have to choose between renegotiating with you or get a better deal with someone else every couple of years
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>Actually caring about people, but also respecting boundaries. I’m happy to be friends with anyone, but I won’t pry or for example, insist that people go out for drinks with me.
this is good
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>Finding ways to help and uplift people in professional goals, instead of nitpicking and finding excuses to criticize
also goo
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personaly my main source of burnout is the realization that the success of the company is not the success of the individual
if I double prophets of the company am I going to see any of that money?
and as far as year over year raises, if you are not proactively giving your employees raises that beat inflation, you will be putting your employees in a position where the financially responsible path is to go get a job that pays better