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From the Ask Tom mailbag:
Question:
I am a young store manager of two and a half years with no previous managerial experience. Through this time, I have problem employees doing things behind my back, against the rules. I never have enough information to reveal the responsible person or the only information I get is confidential. Mostly, I do not have the time to be involved all day with rule breaking when I am not in the store. What can I do differently to improve this situation?
Response:
It is difficult to understand the nature of the rule breaking, so I can see three causes.
- Malicious, destructive rule breaking, when your back is turned.
- Lazy, non-compliant rule breaking, when the boss is not around.
- Fun rule breaking, light hearted, poking fun at authority, when the boss is not around.
For your part, it probably doesn’t matter. If your boss was aware of the hijinks behavior, it would reflect poorly on you as the Manager. This is tricky, and the solution is likely counter-intuitive. Your efforts could easily backfire and make the situation worse.
So, let’s get some input from others. If you have a response for this dilemma, please post your comment below. If you would like to read the responses, just follow the link to today’s post. I will have some thoughts tomorrow. -TF
Some suggestions:
– State or Refresh certain ‘rules’ or agreements, in your team and face-to-face, about what is done and not done. Now, you have a ‘framework’ to give people feedback and set examples.
– Motivate social control among team members: give team objectives (that will probably not be reached with things done behind your back by certain persons).
– Approach the problem employees and talk about your observations of his/her behaviour. Show disappointment and say you want to understand why this happens. (then: see agreements)
– If your boss should ask how the team management is going, talk about your problems and the solutions you think of. He’s there to help after all.
Good luck / good work!
MB
I think one of the things the manager may want to do is spend some time with the employees see their attitudes in order to help determine what type of rule breaking he is dealing with so that he can best handle the situation with limited fall out from the others that may have come to him in confidence.
Someone we both know, Tom, would say this is the blind leading the blind, but I cannot learn also if I do not participate. Therefore, my suggestion on this matter expands upon the two previous posts. I believe that what’s happened here is a decline in organizational culture. Because the behaviour has been “allowed” for some time, the kids are not going to be responsive to authority without restructure.
In order to gain commitment on a restructure, it is recommended that everyone have a voice and participate. Schedule a meeting and create your agenda with these things in mind. For example, the first meeting may include what your problems are and ask the group for their assistance just like you did us, without pointing fingers and naming names, and see what you get back. Next, let them know that things need to change, that you again need their assistance, and how would they like to go about it. Of course, this is presuming the issues are limited to your department and under your control. Otherwise, this information would need to be revised to include the other factors. Finally, empower your group by asking how they would handle disciplinary proceedures. The idea here being that you need not continually chase the kids around the room. They grow up and become responsible individuals through roles and responsibilities and a renewed sense of pride in their organization and their part within it.
Another suggestion is that perhaps floor leaders need to be implimented and maybe the group can trade off that role. My suggestion would be two at a time leaders so individuals in the role do not become inclined to powertrip.
“Fish” is a good book to assist in a visual of empowering employees on this subject. It’s an easy read; you can do it in a matter of hours.
Many times this type of behavior can be mitigated simply by showing that the manager is paying attention.
While you may not know “who” broke the rule, you do know that the rule was broken. Calling attenetion to the fact that you are watching will deter most individuals that are worth having around in the first place, hopefully exposing those that are the problem. There is usually an instigator or two infecting the healthy apples.
First of all, has your role as a manager been validated through your superiors in such a way that your group understands the importance of your position? If not, maybe that needs to happen in order to establish a greater level of respect.
Otherwise, maybe just pulling your group together and explaining to them the problems that you’re having could serve to put the guilty party under the scrutiny of his or her more responsible peers. Not everyone is conspiring against you or getting a charge out of breaking the “rules”.
Finally, being tactful about your sources of information, a one on one conversation with the alleged rule breaker is probably the most direct way of dealing with this.
Good Luck.
You’ve got a tough situation. It’s a people issue so i’d make it a point to spend more time with them and gain insight on how they are performing on individual tasks, what they like, dislike, thier strenghs and weaknesses. Through past expereince, I learned that when I give more of myself and recieve more. I used to come to work and be so tactical, so focused on the work itself and gave little focus on the people; i got a lot done but didn’t have a lot of fans and the team enviorment was not very good. Now that i invest time in the people, i have a more positive team enviroment.
Some good suggestions are made in previous comment so no need to repeat them. The thing I find missing untill no is the position you take as a manager towards your people. I mean, is the position as a manager is very tolerant and very friendly, then the team members will get a feeling that rules are not on top of the managers list. Setting the good example by communicating about the rules, whey we need rules and the result of not following the rules and following them very strictly yourselves will give a strong message. In most cases this is enough.
I agree with the above with an additional twist. First it is tricky but manageable. I do not think this type of behavior ever stops in an organization. Could be passive aggressive behavior, also, a staff member may be seeking attention, like a child, and whether it is good or bad it is attention. The other thing I would point out is that all staff have strong points and week points. I believe as you groom a member of your team in positive traits that the other stuff becomes more diminished. You never want to put yourself in a position where you lose face or authority by confronting at the wrong time. Timing is essential or you cause yourself more grief. It is very tricky and always seek the counsel of others. Well folks thats my say in this. Good Luck.