For the past several months I have had the opportunity to work with a few new and young managers. Most of these managers are Generation “Y” and it is their first time in a management position.
Their stories are very similar. They were either hired in or promoted within the organization to a management position overseeing 3-10 staff members.
When I asked them what there first thoughts were when they were offered the job, they all thought that it was exciting and that everything was going to go just as they thought in their minds that it should.
Yes, I did say this was their first management position. They truly did not know what was in store for them, nor did they have the proper onboard training that they really needed. They all told me they never realized the difficult situations they would have to deal with, such as bad and mean employees, poor morale, and petty coworker conflict.
If you are a manager you can empathize with them… Do you remember what it was like? I sure do. I thought that I would be able to make everyone do what he or she needed to do because I was nice to them.
It is not that I am not nice now, but now I have a working plan, systems and protocols for all staff members to follow so they know how to do their job and can evaluate if they are doing it well.
Twenty years of experience has paid off. If I can help young managers learn some of the lessons I had to learn the hard way easier, I will certainly do it.
As a manager we will deal with some difficult situations. Some of the situations I encountered I never would have imagined. I can say that I would not trade the experience and knowledge that came from those situations for anything.
The link below is to an article, that appeared on the Global Post site, about difficult situations that managers encounter and how they can be handled.
You do not have to be a new manager to appreciate the insightful information presented in the article.
As an aside…what difficult situations have you encountered as a manager?
Comentarios