5 Common Management Questions, Answered
MRH Mailbag: Advice from Our Experts
When I first began leading and managing a team, I was caught off guard by the number of unique and unusual challenges I faced on a daily basis. In the span of a given week, I found myself addressing everything from budget issues, to personnel matters, to customer inquiries. No two days were alike.
Along with the steady inflow of unpredictable issues came a lengthy list of questions and uncertainty about how to handle the challenge of the day. My questions ranged from fairly basic to the complex.
Those were the early days, and years later I still find myself facing unusual situations and challenges on a regular basis.
Today, in the spirit of learning, we wanted to share some of our reader questions, each of which address some of the regular challenges we as managers and business leaders face.
Here are 5 management questions sent in by our reader, as well as solutions from our team of experts.
1. “I have an employee who is never on time, what do I do?” – Tiffany
Attendance issues can take many forms ranging from routine tardiness to staff meetings to regularly missing entire days of work. While we are all late or run into a delay at times, routine tardiness or missing work on a recurring basis needs attention.
If you start noticing a trend, you’ll want to collect data to illustrate the pattern. It’s entirely possible the employee doesn’t realize they’re often late or that people are even taking notice. Collecting data serves two purpose. First, it allows you to verify and summarize your observations. Second, the data will ensure the employee that you’re not generalizing the feedback based on a single data point.
Once you’ve gathered some information discuss your findings with the employee privately and express your concerns.
Before we start criticizing an employee’s tardiness or attendance, however, it’s important to first understand the situation. Make sure the attendance issue is not the result of a personal matter at home – for example, caring for a sick child or parent. Simply ask if there’s something affecting their attendance that you should know about.
Once you confirm there is no personal issue at home impacting the employee’s attendance, reaffirm expectations. Here are some example talking points related to work attendance to reinforce with the employee:
- If you’re running late or something comes up, let someone know in advance
- Showing up late is disruptive to others (particularly when it comes to meetings)
- Tardiness sets a bad example for junior employees who might begin to think it’s acceptable behavior
- Other leaders will notice the pattern and may assume it’s a performance problem
- A lack of dependability can limit future career opportunities
- Attendance issues adversely affect customers
While exceptions always exist depending on a given situation, addressing tardiness requires you send a fair but firm message that attendance and promptness is important. Follow up with the employee at a later date to either acknowledge improved attendance or to discuss next steps, including possible disciplinary actions.
2. “I believe one of my employees is ready to manage her own team, but she’s unsure. What suggestions do you have for giving her a ‘try out’ before she becomes a full-time leader of people and decides she hates it?” – Darren
Darren’s question describes a situation that many of us face – we have an employee who’s interested in advancement and managing people, but they’re unsure if they’ll like it or if they’ll be comfortable with some of the more challenging aspects of leading a team. In short, they’re interested, but they are unsure because they don’t know what they don’t know.
Before I started managing people I had similar concerns. The “try out” my supervisor used with me – and which I have subsequently used to develop other aspiring leaders – was simple. In order to give your up-and-coming employee and potential future manager a chance to test their skills and learn more about the role, create a functional manager relationship with other employees.
A functional manager title – as either an official arrangement in your performance management system, or one that’s informal – gives the individual a responsibility to perform a subset of management duties. A functional manager is often referred to a ‘dotted line’ relationship on an organizational chart.
Examples of functional management relationships can include:
- Creating a team leader role.
- Having him/her serve as a project lead, which includes providing performance feedback to team members.
- Managing a sub-team or group of people assigned to a specific activity.
By designating the employee as a functional manager, it gives him or her a chance to practice, experience and develop several fundamental management responsibilities for their functional reports. These can include:
- Priority setting and assigning of tasks
- Team communication and organization
- Taking the ‘role’ of leader and decision maker
- Giving feedback to employees, both formally (through performance management processes) and informally
While the full set of responsibilities – delivering annual performance reviews, issuing raises and dealing with tougher matters – resides with you, giving an employee exposure to some aspects of the role can be a very effective leadership development strategy.
This approach lets the employee get some experience but also allows him or her to confirm they want to take the step to becoming a full manager.
3. “My employee generally has a bad attitude. However, he does really good work. What should I do?” – Steve
The old saying is true, at least in terms of managing people: one bad apple can ruin the bunch.
An employee with a bad attitude can easily harm your organization in any number of ways – team morale, the customer’s impression of your organization, and even your efforts to recruit new talent. The situation is particularly difficult, however, when the employee is a good worker and not someone you’d want to lose.
There are two angles to this situation.
First, the employee may just have a negative personality – it happens. He or she may have a glass-half-empty view of things and generally sees the negative in most situations.
Addressing negativity comes down to coaching. The real objective here isn’t to change their personality. Rather, you just need to work with them to avoid letting their pessimism spill over to the rest of the team. Outside of trying to keep a lid on their pessimism, there’s not a lot you can do to change this. (Hint: most pessimists know they’re pessimists and are willing to talk admit it). Again, it comes down to coaching – highlight the effect their negative attitude can have on others, and ask for their commitment to maintain a professional attitude.
The second set of circumstances behind a bad attitude is more difficult to deal with. In these situations, the employee is dissatisfied with something, and wishes to make it known. They complain publicly, they encourage others to take their perspective, and they may even lash out and lose any sense of professionalism.
An outwardly negative attitude from an employee has many possible triggers:
- Feeling stress (specifically, not dealing with stress well)
- Feeling they’re being treated unfairly (e.g. passed up for promotion, being given an unfair workload)
- A personal issue outside of work that’s bleeding into work (e.g. a sick parent)
Dealing with a negative attitude just comes down to professionally confronting the issue. Here is a simple blueprint for the conversation:
- Explain to the employee you’ve noticed they seem to be finding and dwelling on the negatives
- Ask if there’s something troubling them or if there’s something you need to be aware of that is contributing to this behavior
- Give them genuine feedback on your observations and concerns. Has there been an impact on the customer? Have other leaders taken notice?
- While discussing possible remedies, also highlight the impact that a negative attitude can have on the rest of the team.
- Reset expectations for their conduct going forward
Ultimately, even a good worker with a bad attitude may not be one you’ll want to keep around. Make sure you talk through the behavior with the employee, identify possible causes and sources of their attitude. Lastly, ensure you discuss the impact it’s having on the team and the customer, and commit to an action plan for change.
RELATED: How to Manage the Office Scrooge
4. “My employee talks too much and struggles to meet deadlines. What can I do?” – Kelly
Every team is composed of different personalities – the workaholic, the silent one, the go-getter, and the socialite.
To be fair, we want our places of work to be comfortable, inviting and relaxed. And, we want our employees to collaborate and enjoy working with one another. Thus, having employees who want to engage with their teammates is never a bad thing – until the socializing starts to interfere with the getting the work done.
Managing an employee who spends more time talking than producing results is frustrating. That said, you must base your analysis of the situation on results and not just your preference for less chit chat. If the job is getting done, deadlines are not being missed and other employees are not missing dates either, it’s probably a non-issue, even if you don’t like the consistent chatter.
On the other hand, if dates are being missed and the work of other employees is being negatively affected, addressing the behavior takes some effort.
The key is to focus on the results and the behavior, not the person. Here are some tips and strategies for dealing with an employee who spends too much time socializing.
- In a one on one setting, start by highlight the results – frequently missed deadlines, showing up late to meetings, conveying feedback or observations you’ve received from others.
- Discuss the behavior you’ve noticed and how it might be negatively affecting results – spending a lot of time away from their desk, spending excessive time in the break room, lengthy hallway conversations.
- Reset expectations of behavior, clearly defining of deadlines against which you can measure (and document) performance going forward.
- Increase his or her workload – the socializing may simply be the result of boredom, not having enough to do and not feeling pressure to get their work done quickly.
- Create physical separation between the “talkers.” Putting your 4 most chatty employees in the same cubicle together is probably a bad idea!
- If the issue continues, deadlines continue to be missed and other employees’ work is suffering by the distractions, consider disciplinary action as appropriate (such as a performance improvement plan).
RELATED: When Employees Overcommit and Say Yes to Everything
Collaborative work environments where employees enjoy each other’s company are the sign of a well-run organization. Just make sure you don’t let the socializing exceed productivity!
5. “I just got promoted to my first management position. What should I do in my first 6 months?” – Gregory
Every one of us makes that transition from being an individual employee to becoming a manager. It’s an exciting, but uncertain time. Even if we already have management experience, when we take over a new team we often have that panic moment when we ask ourselves “Well, now what?”
When you step into a position of leadership don’t overlook the challenge that awaits you: you now need to deal with people issues, you are required to give employees feedback, you may have responsibility for a budget, and your team’s performance is ultimately your responsibility.
There are a few basic steps to mastering your transition to management and setting yourself up on the right path. These include:
- Getting to know your people
- Getting to know the organization
- Learning processes and how to get things done
- Understanding the current state of projects and activities
- Outlining your vision and charting your course
During your first six months as a manger, you’ll want to spend time learning the ropes, in detail, so you can learn to do your job effectively. Ask questions, even if they seem silly. As eager as you might be to jump in and start making quick decisions, doing your homework will yield far better results in the long run.
If you’re really interested in a detailed step by step plan check out What to Do In Your First 6 Months as the Boss.
Help is On the Way!
This edition of the MRH Mailbag highlights five common situations that many of us face. The good news is that most of the challenges we face as leaders aren’t new – all you need to do is ask for help. If you have a question or need help, feel free to CONTACT MRH for help. Our experts would be glad to assist!