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Thread: Management style

  1. #11
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    Oh Yvonne, thank you so much for your response. I could just give out this huge deep belly laugh, and i just love your take on issues in general.

    Now here is my input, valuable as it is If you are stuck with a cart horse whip the damn thing until it becomes a racehorse. Nothing like pain from behind to encourage speed. We don't owe them any loyalty nor compassion, they are from a different planet.

    Angry mountain lion? As a woman I sometimes feel a twinge of guilt for being assertive, a lady is not assertive, she is compliant,subservient and all the rest of the bull the world fed us, but I am getting better at it every day, so spit ahead Yvonne.

  2. #12
    Platinum Member Marq's Avatar
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    Thats right Alta. Obviously before one employs or marries you test the goods.........but
    • Sometimes the goods have a latent defect
    • Sometimes you did not buy the goods yourself
    • Sometimes the goods just get sick and roll over
    • Sometimes your alchemy has a positive reaction in the test tube but curdles in the petry dish.


    'Life is really simple but we just insist on making it complicated' - Confucius

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    Alta Murray (18-Jul-08)

  4. #13
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    This thread is coming along quite nicely. Thanks for reviving it, Christob.
    Quote Originally Posted by Marq View Post
    I have have seen staff move in both directions - Staff that I have had high expectations of become a disappoint and vice versa.
    I have to agree. I've seen this so many times.
    Quote Originally Posted by Alta Murray View Post
    Yes, people can only be expected to function in their area of excellence, however that should have been taken care of during the interviewing process. Trying to rectify mid-stride is way too late. There are very good tests that can be done to determine where a person will function best, and if they then evolve within their area of excellence, it is a plus on all sides.
    Hmm. Tests might help make sure you don't put round pegs in square holes, but I'm not convinced it will spot the things that really go wrong.

    If people are willing, and are pursuing something they are interested in, you can expect reasonable results. However, there is a whole host of things that can affect that, and often they are out of your control as an owner or manager.

    One of the big ones is if problems develop in the person's personal life. I've seen so many potentially good people lose their way because they can't get on top of their "circumstances." It can be anything from getting a love interest, or a strained relationship, to something extreme like developing a destructive habit. Not easy to deal with even if you get to know about it. And the toll on work performance can be huge.

  5. #14
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    Confucius -- oh no, plagarism! Which came first Solomon or Confucius? After so many many moons of research let me share this with you:

    As humans we have a tendency to see only what we want to see, that which fits in with the holistic picture we carry within. Let's leave the learned names by the wayside, but you have probably heard the buzz words like perception, filters, inner-tapes etc.

    So the chap walks in for an interview, and what do you see? Are you being objective, or are you fighting the inner-battle of honing in on the one thing that you like about this prospect, and mute out the rest? I assure you it is a very human response. Objectivity is in all probability a human pipe dream, unless you are a psycho, but the rest of us suffer collectively from an attachment problem -- I like to call it the valcro phenomena.

    Funny how we respond to this, and we will willingly shut our eyes to things that are right in front of us. So what if I am a rugby freak and the oke just loves rugby as well, valcro!, and then he shows the same motivations, propelling force as I, valcro!,etc. It is a response we hardly notice or are aware of, but find it's expression in "I really like this person" ignoring the nervous twitch, the incessant foot tapping, all the other cues.

    So yes very difficult to assess a human being in his/her full glory during one interview and a follow-up. We are not Solomon or Confucius and people don't come with perspex skulls so we can see inside. So what do we do?

    I tend to opt for ( and no it is not fail proof) tenacity & determination in a person. What did this prospect NOT finish in his life? What was left undone? Having the test results in hand as well will at least will give you a bit of an edge as opposed to having nothing.

    As business people we have something that becomes a bit over-developed, instinct. Listen to that inner voice or inner alarm bells going off. Interesting field of research that, and it has been scientifically proven that we have 'other' senses that we react to, and if you know the signs it becomes a potent force in business, not just for interviews.

    Check next time you meet someone new -- it takes but a few seconds ( research indicates three, but I don't know the person who sat with the stopwatch) and you will have a reaction indicating like, dislike, distrust, trust etc. Very hard to change those initial perceptions, and then ask yourself why?

    Loved your bulletin points! But I have absolutely no answer if you did not buy the goods yourself. We have all been there, so what one should do is to do your best with what you have. My grandmother taught me : Work with what you've got, and she never ever allowed me to say : If only I had.....

    Hosed myself about the petry dish -- what a stunning way to convey something that covers so much terrain. That phrase deserves to be coined along side the great ones!!
    I tried it on every aspect of life -- and it works!!!! I shall stride forth into this weekend very satisfied, I am an impossible nerd who loves finding truths, and if I were you I would throw that one into every lull in conversation Off to press a thank you on your post...

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  7. #15
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    .... and if they then evolve Dave. If being the operative here. But I can not agree with you more, there are so many variables that we can not control. But that is okay too, imagine assuming responsibility for every worker's private life or demons? If I feel the pinch of loss of control, I always imagine what the opposite would be like, and almost always walk away feeling relieved that I don't have control over those things.

    What I find that works well, but remember the industry I am in, is to encourage non-verbally compartementalization( I have no idea if i spelled that correctly) but we all respond well to it. Who would not want to forget about the mess you left behind at home or in your private life? Surely it will feel good to have a sense of respect and appreciation at work, get a good old taste of success in at least some arena of your life? If we see that someone is down, one of us will give some special praise for performance, and a whole host of little things, even handing the person a mug of java can make a day seem better if a person is down. But we don't indulge....

    I hate the word circumstances, perhaps because if I ask someone How are you? and they respond with under the circumstances I begin to giggle. But look, there are times that our private lives will impact on our professional ones, and that goes for every one, and I am sure all of us will agree that to step up and support that person is a natural response. However, I did note your " not getting on top of their circumstances" and that just wearies my soul.

    I can not for the life of me understand a person who has now lucked out in love, and carries that around like a banner!! so what? We have all been there, life is not a series of success spikes, we have all been hurt, so just get on with it! And don't contaminate the work place for more than a week with whatever it is that is distracting you! A stiff upper lip is under-valued in modern society, but it is what is needed in the work place.

    After a week it should be Suck it up Nancy and do your work! Surely if you rock up for work and expect money at the end of the month, I am not going to pay you for watching your emotional pantomine.

    But it is only normal for us to feel this way -- I only ever signed up to run my business, never realizing at the outset that I will have to function as Human Resources as well, I really did not see that one coming, i thought that if I was doing my best in my area of excellence and did the financial management thingy, all would be well. I never realized how many areas I would have to cover. Now I can only appreciate how easy it is to program a system as opposed to humans.

    A shortcut that works for me is to get to understand a person's motivation, and work from there.

    Please challenge me on this if you guys think I am wrong, but I tend to view this pretty much like gardening. You select the plants on the basis of where they will grow well in your garden, nobody plants a half-shade in full sun, and then we provide an environment that will provide optimal growth. Now what gardener will stand back if the garden fails to produce? The focus should remain on the garden.

    In the end you can only provide the tools, it is up to the other person to bend down and pick it up, and no human being can be expected to control every variable that impacts on life. But do use what you have, and tests are a good starting point, I won't give an inch on that.

  8. #16
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Absolutely brilliant post, Alta. And can I ever relate to this...
    Quote Originally Posted by Alta Murray View Post
    I only ever signed up to run my business, never realizing at the outset that I will have to function as Human Resources as well, I really did not see that one coming, i thought that if I was doing my best in my area of excellence and did the financial management thingy, all would be well. I never realized how many areas I would have to cover. Now I can only appreciate how easy it is to program a system as opposed to humans.
    Yep. Me too. I wonder how many more business owners and managers feel the same way?

  9. #17
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    HI
    It looks to me like we are incorporating some performance management in with the management style and this is my hobby horse.
    I believe that each and every person inherently wants to do a good job and wants to be accepted and feel some accomplishment for their job. This does not mean that they dont end up in the wrong job or that they dont go into a negative spiral at times but that is the base line.

    On many occasions when talking to a "problem" employee" or a under performer I realize that this person does not understand what the expectations are - sure you have job description and a LOA etc. but they still dont understand what is expected.

    Quarterly or even monthly performance management is great but everyday guiding and coaching will help you build a team that knows exactly what is expected of them and they will execute every time, there will still be mistakes but atleast you can fix these.

    Otherwise use the very simple, legally allowed, CCMA approved and union proof dismissal for poor work performance route!

    Alta we all feel like you do about the people management, it is not just HR it is marriage councillor, fin consultant, family councillor etc. etc. etc.

  10. #18
    Silver Member Graeme's Avatar
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    Right on! After 14 years in HR and then 26 years in general management I could not say it better!

  11. #19
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    Thank you, it is a reminder of what we *should* do, but sometimes I just feel that if you don't have a full comprehension of what is expected of you, you have a mouth, it is not just a pie hole, ask!

    What we have now is a graph for everyone on the notice board, so you can see how you are performing, it seems to work well at this stage, but i have not had a change to study this long-term, and follow a trend on reactions. Just read studies on it, so I suspect whilst it will work well for some individuals, it might not work for others?

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