Monday, March 05, 2007

Just trying to Manage

When you work in an office with a small group of people, it's easy to get close to them and sometimes you know things about them that you don't know about your immediate family members. When you are the supervisor of this small group of people it gets hard if you have reason to do what our company calls a "developmental session" with one of them. Today I had to do that. This particular person is having a hard time performing somethings that are required of her and she is so tender hearted, I let it go much longer than I should have. Today was the day I had to do it.
She expected it as it has to do with quality of sales and she'd seen the report for the end of the month. She and I do talk about it every month but I've never sat down with her, written it all up and had her sign it. We set some goals and some training that will help her (I hope) and she took it all pretty well. I made it as positive as I could.
Mostly being a manager is no different from being a fellow human being, I just try to treat people as I would want them to treat me. I fail at this sometimes in the heat of a moment but I strive very hard. Managing people is the second hardest job I've ever done. The first was raising children and actually the two are not that different, are they?

1 comment:

heiresschild said...

this was inspiring because as a near-future business owner, i really want to treat my employees well. i've been on the other end, and i've made mental notes over the years what not to do. as you said, treating them as fellow human beings is a key answer. i'm glad things went well during your talk, and i hope things improve on the employee's end.