If you are a manager of others, one of your most important tasks is to provide feedback to those who report to you, and help them become more effective employees – and usually happier in the end too. Most managers are never given training on this, and wind up either aligning at one of the extremes. Either being ‘brutally honest’ or unwilling to deliver the hard, but needed, messages.
Honest and effective feedback is crucial to becoming our best. Rather than moving towards the extremes, managers need to find their own way, but be willing to deliver difficult messages, while showing respect for those on the receiving end. You will be helping them on to more productive careers and netting yourself a better coworker. On a more Machiavellian note, being too ‘nice’ to deliver hard messages limits your earning as well. Those who are able to make unpopular decisions make more money in their careers, though I bet those who leave carnage in their wake don’t do as well as those who take more care to deliver it in a balanced way.
Having good managers is vital to the well-being of a company. Interesting information here: http://www.inc.com/maeghan-ouimet/real-cost-bad-bosses.html?goback=.gde_764417_member_187402069.
Those are chilling statistics. I’d heard some of them, but having them all in one place like that really drives the point home. Thanks for sharing, Jennifer!
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I’m currently reading “Quiet Leadership” by David Rock: http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Leadership-Steps-Transforming-Performance/dp/0060835915/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356921425&sr=8-1&keywords=quiet+leadership. I’m about 40% through, but it has some good insights on how to lead, relying on recent brain research. Are you familiar with the book or author at all? Is so, what are your thoughts?
No, Ryan. I haven’t read that work. From the reviews and description however it appears he also believes in managing with an eye to improving those you guide, and helping them to improve. Does that match what you have read thus far? Does he have any thoughts which you found especially interesting?
I think that’s a relatively good description. One of his main premises is that you need to work forward and help those you manage change their thinking. Rock believes that looking back on problems and “what happened” is essential for systems management, but counter-effective when managing people as it simply helps strengthen the ways of thinking that lead to the problem in the first place. I thought this was interesting and have been trying to use such strategies with both my teachers and children. Rock seems to make some good points and his book is probably worth reading.
I’m a big fan of learning from our mistakes. Looks like a book to put on the “should read” list! Thanks!
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