We’ve talked before about the importance of interpersonal skills when it comes to your success in life, but I wanted to discuss it again due to an incident at work. My manager, with whom I’ve been talking with about leaving soon, has been basically ignoring the pleas by people on our team that we’re stressed and overworked. I understand the business aspect of things, and I know that sometimes a manager’s hands are tied when it comes to bringing new people in. Each department has a budget and sometimes it’s just not in the cards to do something like that. The problem however is in the approach that he’s taking to it. Everybody has a different management style, but our manager is an extreme numbers type of guy. Instead of trying to understand what we’re going through and doing things to make it better, he’s basically just blowing it off as people whining. It’s pretty easy to see why no one is really happy about the situation.
For the majority of the population, going to work is part of your daily routine and you try to get by as much as you can. If you happen to have a job that can be stressful than you know it can be so overwhelming at times that you wonder if it’s all worth it. These feelings are normal, and usually they fluctuate up and down depending on what’s going on in your job at the time. Most of the time it’s not really a big deal, and something that a good manager can diffuse with the proper actions. But if you have a manager that has a complete disregard for the things you’re going through, it makes it that much harder to continue a hectic pace unless you truly just love the job.
Managers don’t need to know all the details of what their employees are going through, and in some disciplines (like IT for example) they may not even have the technical knowledge to truly understand everything. But even if you don’t understand all the details, you can still work to see the situation through your employees eyes. Part of being a manager is being a psychiatrist, a mentor, and at times a friend. You have to know how to relate and motivate all types of people with different types of personalities. It’s not an easy position to be in. Being a leader comes with certain responsibilities and by default a manager has to be a leader to their team.
The primary characteristic of a leader is being someone that others want (or are willing to) follow. As a manager, it’s imperative to take care of the people that make you look good and break their back for you every day. Those are the people that stay late for you and take time away from their families for you, the least you can do is make an effort to listen to their ideas and things that they are struggling with. A manager that doesn’t make that effort will only end up losing good people in the end. Sure, in today’s workforce employees are looked at as replaceable resources but a manager that is constantly losing quality people due to a lack of effort or compassion for their team is most likely to be the one to be replaced after a while.
April 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Maybe you should talk to your manager’s superior and see if he see the situation in a different light. If the workers can’t work, then the work can’t be done. The needs and problems of the workers should be addressed and a good superior must recognize this.