Here’s a tip I’ve learned over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a manager, we need to be careful how we respond to a question from a staff member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to always keep in mind that our words carry weight. Staff expect us to mean what we say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We’re the ones leading things and they expect us to have a responsible and clear communication and to follow through. Often, they will be listening through more of a lens that sees things as black and white, yes or no. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s say you are in the back room, and a staff person approaches and tells you that this Friday is their dad’s birthday and they forgot to request time off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’re moving quickly and remark, “I’m sure we can get something worked out”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There you said it…you’re the manager and you’re expected to follow through on your words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, in a while, you remember and go look at the already published schedule and see two stockers have already been given that day off and it’s just not going to work for anyone else to be gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now you’re in a tight spot. Yes, you can go explain and roll back what you said but not without an unfortunate impact. Remember staff want us to be responsible and mean what we say. They certainly don’t appreciate the shifting sands of loose communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I found is that when we walk through the door each day, we need to remind ourselves of the weight of our words at any given moment. This is a mindset that we keep actively functioning every moment we have a manager name badge on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So going back to our example, it is better to always pause (don’t let habitual supportive phrases just be tossed out) and activate your mindset. A response like, “let me see what is possible” <\/em>providesacknowledgement and gives us time to explore options, consider what will actually work, and respond in a caring and considerate way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think you’ve got the concept here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another thing to be on the lookout for is when you respond to a request from a staff member with a quick and casual “OK”.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n OK, can mean two things. One, I hear and acknowledge what you’re saying (with no agreement of acceptance of the request) and two, your request is accepted and approved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s go back to the same example. Say you remark with a quick “OK” <\/em>and because you’re distracted, you move quickly onward. In our minds we think we’ve acknowledged that we heard their request, and we’ll get back to them. The staff member on the other hand has just assumed we’ve OK’d their request, and they now have that Friday off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Could be a problem. And it would never have happened if we remembered our mindset. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, it boils down to the fact that we carry the weight of managing and that weight needs to slow us down and give us pause. Communicating like a manager is a learned art not to be taken lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s give ourselves time to consider. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s a tip I’ve learned over time. As a manager, we need to be careful how we respond to a question from a staff member. We need to always keep in mind that our words carry weight. Staff expect us to mean what we say. We’re the ones leading things and they expect us to have a responsible and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1080","footnotes":""},"project_category":[3],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-2334","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-m2m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2337,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2334\/revisions\/2337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=2334"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=2334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}