Great input!

Thanks,

Mike

And that’s why things get tricky when it comes to communicating annoyances and problems. On the one hand, I think that many bosses may feel that there are certain employees who DO seem to always be bringing trouble to your door (you may inwardly groan when you see an email from them pop up in your Inbox or when they catch you in the hallway). On the other hand, employees who notice issues and are not afraid to call them to their boss’s attention are a great partner to a busy boss, since they are in a position to notice the details that their supervisor may not have the opportunity or time to see.

I sometimes feel frustrated when it seems that employees complain reguarly about something but are unwilling to bring it to anyone’s attention because they feel that it is not important enough to bother their supervisor with. If it’s not that important, why complain about it at all?

There are a number of things that can be resolved quickly if the right people know about them. And that is why I urge people to use their good judgment and escalate the issues that are really bugging them. Often it seems that things are not resolved because the right people don’t know about them, rather than because people are deliberately NOT doing something.

Once an issue has been communicated by an employee, it is then the responsibility of the leadership of a company to explain either the steps they will take to resolve this issue or to explain why resolution is not urgent or possible at this time. Some issues seem to fester because no one is willing to just tell employees, “This is the way things are and they are not going to change. Accept it, and move on.”

As you have mentioned in many of your posts, Mike, it all boils down to effective, two-way communcation.

You would think that the two would be synonymous, but unfortunately that is not always the case. There are some employees that seem to have a greater vision for the company, and what is best for the company, than the boss.

If a boss is NOT able to see, after an employee’s very worthy, thoughtful proposal has been made, that “This is not exactly
what will help me, but it will, in fact, help the effective of the company,” then he has hindered the progress of the company.

I think a boss should be able to carefully weigh any proposal, not on the basis of, “First of all, how will this help me?” but, “How will this help or hinder the effectiveness of the company.”

On the other hand, I do agree that any boss wants to feel that his employees want to “help me meet the goals I have set for the company.”

Maybe I have misunderstood your premise, but those are the thoughts I had.

I think it is marvelous that you encourage the exploration of these matters.

Thanks for your time,

Lindsay

In response to your first question, you are absolutely correct. I have to protect the source of the comment. And, they are not specific about which boss. We don’t name names. We are simply trying to address cultural issues we see and then I can speak to them generally.

With regard to your second comment, I don’t quite understand the conflict you see. Could you elaborate?

Thanks,

Mike

1. If you correct something in the day-to-day operation of one of your department heads, will he or she not suspect that you got your information, and the need to make the correction, from the person in his department who attended your “Pizza With the Prez?” Would that not, perhaps, cause a strained relationship between that department head and his worker?

I. In your article HOW TO GET YOUR BOSS’S APPROVAL, January 22, 2007, you stated:

“1. Meet your boss’s needs. This is the first and most important key to getting to ‘yes.’ Everything else in this article is a footnote to this point.”
“Face it: no one cares about your needs. Okay, maybe I’m overstating it. A few people care. But, certainly everyone is more interested in having their needs met than yours. That’s just reality. The sooner you accept it, the faster you will get to ‘yes.’”

2. That seems to be somewhat in conflict with the second paragraph of this blog:
“The further you move up the chain-of-command, the less likely it is that you will get the truth. Information is filtered, spun, and managed. People either tell you what they want you to know or think you want to hear.”

I would like to know your response.

Keep the blogs coming, especially the information on “leadership.” Of course, most of what you have said, that I have read, has to do with some aspect of leadership.

EVERYTHING RISES AND FALLS ON LEADERSHIP – Lee Roberson

Blessings,

Lindsay Terry

When I was in the National Guard, the senior leaders would call a meeting to discuss next month’s drill. The meeting was held at the end of the last day (after five) and all non-commissioned officers had to attend. The meeting often ran three hours because it was so disorganized and chaotic. The senior leaders, who were fulltime Guard, never seemed to get that some of the people had to drive three or four hours to get home and then get up at five the next morning to go their regular job.

My brother ran into the same thing at a company he worked for. He ended up showing them how he felt with his feet.