[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Publication1-4.jpg” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ max_width=”33%”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.101″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”20px”]I guess the best way I can say it is that it’s a sobering moment when we realize that managers talk differently than friends talk.<\/p>\n
It’s really a bitter pill but once taken our lives as a managers can start to gain traction and wind can finally fill our sails.<\/p>\n
It’s not always smooth sailing but a least we’ll have strong timbers beneath us.<\/p>\n
Let’s take a conversation for example.<\/p>\n
When advising or trying to help a friend, the friend often leads the conversation with reasons, rationales, emotions, and pleads for understanding.<\/p>\n
And as a listening friend we follow along and the conversation wanders all over – that is natural.<\/p>\n
When we’re a manager having a performance improvement conversation with an employee (who may be a friend) all these things now become sidetracks and take the conversation away from where it needs to go.<\/p>\n
Our focus needs to be bringing clarity to the expectation of performance and defining the gap in behavior.<\/p>\n
No one wants to be the heartless, robotic manager but heartless is not our only choice when we learn to communicate as a manager.<\/p>\n
We can still be compassionate, caring and accepting and still guide the conversation forward without defense and argumentation.<\/p>\n
We don’t need to change the employee’s mind or invalidate their right to have emotions.<\/p>\n
We can give that a little time and space but we need to move forward with clear behavioral facts.<\/p>\n
Friendship is one of our most prized possession as human beings.<\/p>\n
As managers our definition of true friendship might need to expand a bit and with grace in our hearts we can acknowledge how challenging that is for all of us, managers and our staff alike.<\/p>\n
We can also learn to gently keep a conversation on track when we are managing.
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I guess the best way I can say it is that it’s a sobering moment when we realize that managers talk differently than friends talk. It’s really a bitter pill but once taken our lives as a managers can start to gain traction and wind can finally fill our sails. It’s not always smooth sailing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"
I guess the best way I can say it is that it's a sobering moment when we realize that managers talk differently than friends talk.<\/p>
It's really a bitter pill but once taken our lives as a managers can start to gain traction and wind can finally fill our sails.<\/p>
It's not always smooth sailing but a least we'll have strong timbers beneath us.<\/p>
Let's take a conversation for example.<\/p>
When advising or trying to help a friend, the friend often leads the conversation with reasons, rationales, emotions, and pleads for understanding.<\/p>
And as a listening friend we follow along and the conversation wanders all over - that is natural.<\/p>
When we're a manager having a performance improvement conversation with an employee (who may be a friend) all these things now become sidetracks and take the conversation away from where it needs to go.<\/p>
Our focus needs to be bringing clarity to the expectation of performance and defining the gap in behavior.<\/p>
No one wants to be the heartless, robotic manager but heartless is not our only choice when we learn to communicate as a manager.<\/p>
We can still be compassionate, caring and accepting and still guide the conversation forward without defense and argumentation.<\/p>
We don't need to change the employee's mind or invalidate their right to have emotions.<\/p>
We can give that a little time and space but we need to move forward with clear behavioral facts.<\/p>
Friendship is one of our most prized possession as human beings.<\/p>
As managers our definition of true friendship might need to expand a bit and with grace in our hearts we can acknowledge how challenging that is for all of us, managers and our staff alike.<\/p>
We can also learn to gently keep a conversation on track when we are managing.<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[3],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-413","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\/413","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=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/413\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/merrimanmanagementsupport.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}