” Am I being unreasonable? I gave them a directive that they didn’t like, and they looked at me like I’m being unreasonable. I just worry that I’m expecting too much”
These and similar questions cause confusions that are tough on managers.
It is no fun to feel uncertain and wonder if we are “managing wrong”.
Often as managers we can mistakenly misinterpret an employee’s upset, or their inability to follow policies or perform their job correctly as a signal that we are being trivial, unfair, or unreasonable.
And we start spinning all over the place.
Here’s the thing…
Basically, we all want to feel like our staff has faith in our leadership.
That they see we have clear sightedness, good intentions and effective decision making.
Now I want you to write this next sentence down.
No-one can give this to you until you have given it to yourself.
When you come to rest within yourself as a leader your staff will feel that foundation.
That doesn’t mean that they won’t try every blow-back trick in the book, but they’ll feel your calm steadiness and resolve.
This cuts down considerably on the duration of their attempted disruption.
They might grumble and walk away but you’ll be out of the weeds of self-doubt.
How do we get there?
Focus on walking the steady steps of management.
State clear expectations.
State clearly negative behaviors or performance that are impacting the co-op.
Work from objective, observable facts.
From day one connect, chat and communicate often in order to guide.
And let’s remember only you can flip that switch for yourself that anoints you as a good and reasonable manager.
We have it in us.
I know we do.