Frances Horibe's

Making the Right Decision as a New Manager In the last post, as a new supervisor, you made a work change which everyone in your group liked but got you into hot water with your boss, Bruno. You bought popularity with your group at the expense of a misstep with Bruno. How do you make the right decision? Making space for the right decision In the conversation You had with Candice in a previous post, she pushed to implement a change and you agreed. Let’s pick up that conversation near the end and see what could happen if you don’t immediately agree.   Candice: Well, will you or won’t you?   You: Ah… You are clearly unsure. Candice: Come on, Mia. Everybody will be really happy if you do.   You: Well, I guess so. You are not listening to yourself. Instead: You: You know, let me think about it. Don’t expect Candice to give up easily. Candice: Ah, come on, Mia. You know it’s the right thing to do. Stick to your guns. You: Yeah, just let me think about it some more. She may still not give up. Candice: What’s to think about? Be a broken record. You:…

The Perils of Trying to Be Liked by Your Employees I know, sounds ridiculous. If people hate you, you can’t get their cooperation, you can’t motivate them, they won’t help with reaching the unit’s goals and frankly, it makes for an unpleasant and stressful work place. So there are lots of good reasons why you want to be liked by your employees. But in a management position, you sometimes need to make decisions which aren’t popular with your unit. And in that weird way that is life, if you don’t make them, you’ll end up being disliked anyhow. Let’s consider what would happen down the line if your priority was being liked by your employees rather than being respected. Going for being liked So, let’s assume that you’ve been supervising the unit for a couple of years and have bent over backwards to be popular with the staff. This has included going for a beer after work, accommodating the personal preferences of employees, doing some of the work yourself to relieve the load, always being pleasant, and avoiding criticizing whenever possible. Let’s say you could be a fly on the wall for a conversation between two of your employees whom…

The dilemma set out in the previous post is whether, as a new supervisor, you should supervise a change to the work that everyone in your group wanted.

So, a promotion. Well done. You have taken over your old boss Albert’s job. You will now be respected and supervise staff who, until you got this new job, were your colleagues.