Managers, Supervisors or bosses of others. (Page 2 of 2)
|
Originally Posted By GlutealCleft: We've had much better success hiring junior guys with good attitudes and an aptitude for learning, and teaching and building them up than we have with hiring senior guys. Senior guys tend to often be locked into certain mindsets, often outdated ones, and it's hard to get them to shift. Give me a new guy that wants to work and learn, has a decent IQ, and I'll make him great. Well, I can see an age discrimination lawsuit coming. Great? You call turning young people into Autobots forward-thinking? ROFL |
The fickle man changes his mind. The wise man changes direction.
|
Originally Posted By Chisum: Well, I can see an age discrimination lawsuit coming. Great? You call turning young people into Autobots forward-thinking? ROFL Sam Walton preferred to hire his managers from within through promotions.Despised college educated managers. In his autobiography he said something along the lines of we know what works better than some kid out of college that wants to come in and change things. I think somewhere along the line we have lost balance because both things can be right. |
NRA Patron Life member
SAF Life member
ARFCOM Life member
Teener Crew Life Member - They hate us cuz' they ain't us.
SAF Life member
ARFCOM Life member
Teener Crew Life Member - They hate us cuz' they ain't us.
|
Originally Posted By Chisum: Well, I can see an age discrimination lawsuit coming. Great? You call turning young people into Autobots forward-thinking? ROFL Originally Posted By Chisum: Originally Posted By GlutealCleft: We've had much better success hiring junior guys with good attitudes and an aptitude for learning, and teaching and building them up than we have with hiring senior guys. Senior guys tend to often be locked into certain mindsets, often outdated ones, and it's hard to get them to shift. Give me a new guy that wants to work and learn, has a decent IQ, and I'll make him great. Well, I can see an age discrimination lawsuit coming. Great? You call turning young people into Autobots forward-thinking? ROFL i can give a problem to my junior staff and they'll jump on it enthusiastically and come back 2 weeks later with a simple fix. half of my senior citizens can't be arsed with problem solving because the old way has been more or less ok for 30 years so why bother improving? |
|
Originally Posted By Xringlover: I have had others working under me in my life. My people skill technique is to try to build them up, not tear them down. I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Better to know and make an informed decision than not to know and screw the pooch because one is unwilling to ask out of fear that they will be ridiculed. I am sure that other folks, including myself at some point, were. Have had great success building folks up. Earned a lot of respect also. Yelling at folks or belittling them, doesn`t do anything for moral in the workplace. This is how I always try to lead. Building people, removing obstacles, getting them good tools to do the job better and more efficient results in good things happening. Setting clear expectations with good communication about progress so eval time never had surprises was important for building trust. Confrontation is good as long as it is productive, all of my team knew that a complaint needed to have a proposed solution when brought to me. When upper management changed, began demanding attack evals, demanded supervisors to be yes people and took all the tool budget away I resigned. Unfortunately history is filled with many instances of a "yes man" chain of command resulting in catastrophic and fatal accidents, something I will not be responsible for. |
Middleofnowhere, Nebraska
|
The luxury of working overnights and weekends is that I only see my supervisor a few times a year (Christmas luncheon and the few Monday and Friday mornings she gets in the office before 7am). So I just see emails sent to all of us and replies to emails I sent her asking about something that needs to be taken care of before it turns into a shit show. |
Froot Loops are all the same flavor. They just taste like froot. Whatever the heck that is.
|
Originally Posted By Xringlover: I have had others working under me in my life. My people skill technique is to try to build them up, not tear them down. I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Better to know and make an informed decision than not to know and screw the pooch because one is unwilling to ask out of fear that they will be ridiculed. I am sure that other folks, including myself at some point, were. Have had great success building folks up. Earned a lot of respect also. Yelling at folks or belittling them, doesn`t do anything for moral in the workplace. I had a manager like that a few years ago. His goal was to help me do well at my job and move up the ladder. He also made sure to recognize his employees who were doing a good job. Sadly I only had him as a boss for 8 or 9 months, but I definitely remember him and his management style. |
|
Originally Posted By Atropian_Defector: Working in a union environment as a salaried supervisor has been a test for me. As a leader in the Army, shitbirds and low performers were easy to motivate or move out, and we had processes in place to make you disappear with the paper trail if you sucked. Here, I have 2-3 that will bust their ass for you, and many more that ride the clock like it's a gift they are even there. I can write up for days but HR has no backbone against the union. I have union leaders literally telling people not to work too hard as it will make others look bad and keep us "humble". This is the most toxic place I have ever worked because the culture of union team members is so trash in our department. It's also the first time in my professional career where I can not lead by example and do/show how to do the work. I am not allowed to lift a fucking finger, or risk a grievance. We literally had a supervisor step in and help stop a large christmas decoration from falling on team members because they lost their grip, and he got a grievance over it... I have all the tools in the world to motivate those who are willing to be, but none to correct the ones who cannot/will not be better, which in turns lowers morale for my high performers. Your job is to monitor and report if the union is not meeting the terms of their contract. Do not expect anything beyond the bare minimum necessary to fulfill those terms. |
Arfcom Callsign: Meth
Never tell a bride, with dogshit on her dress, to "chillax"
Never tell a bride, with dogshit on her dress, to "chillax"
|
Originally Posted By Xringlover: I have had others working under me in my life. My people skill technique is to try to build them up, not tear them down. I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Better to know and make an informed decision than not to know and screw the pooch because one is unwilling to ask out of fear that they will be ridiculed. I am sure that other folks, including myself at some point, were. Have had great success building folks up. Earned a lot of respect also. Yelling at folks or belittling them, doesn`t do anything for moral in the workplace. That is the difference between being a manager or being a leader OP. Good job. That is one of the underlying philosophies that got me to a C-suite job. |
How do you do?
|
I've been a supervisor for 21 years in this outfit, and a shift commander for 12. I try REAL hard not to forget where I came from, because we all started off on the bottom. First, when someone comes to me with a problem, one of the first things I will ask is, "Can we fix it? Then fix it." After it's all over and things are back on track, we will have a conversation, which leads me to point two; Second, the Four P's - Praise Publicly, Punish Privately. Now the word "punish" might be a bit excessive, but it starts with p, so apply however you want. Do a good job, go over and above, and I will make sure people, especially people above me, know about it. Screw something up we can fix at my level, we will have a quiet conversation, with maybe only a sergeant as an observer, (especially if it is a female staff member being counseled!), and it is up to that person whether or not they want to share with the rest. If it's over my level, nothing I can do except when someone asks, "Hey what happened to So And So?" "No clue, above my pay grade." Also, if someone has a good idea, I tell them to write it down and sign it, and I will sign and date it in front of them, before submitting it up the chain. I gain nothing by stealing staff ideas but disgruntled staff who will never share a good idea again. Third, which really is first, come to think about it - I am here to help my staff succeed, not fail. I gain nothing by putting staff down or making them quit, except a hole on my roster I can't fill. I will and have fired bad staff, but I will try my damndest to save the good ones. People usually don't quit a bad job, they quit a bad manager. On the other hand....I've had some lulus... Fourth, I've been to various leadership courses over the years offered by in house and external agencies, and invariably, they are a complete waste of time and money. Believe it or not, a lot of what I apply I learned 40+ years ago in JROTC in high school. I shit thee not. Last, don't forget they are human too. Simple rule, family comes first. Come to me and say my wife called and she's going to the hospital, my next words are likely to be, "You're still here? Get gone!" Abuse it and we will have the first of several conversations that get more unpleasant as the abuse of my good nature goes on. Work with me on important things, and I will work with you - I had a guy drawn for one of the best areas for Elk in Arizona two years ago, but we had no space on the roster to get him the time off for the hunt. My sgt and I moved Heaven and Earth, got Admin to grant a concession or two, hired overtimers, and he had the hunt of a lifetime. Froze his butt off, too, oops. Treat your staff like they are worth something, and they will be. |
|
I philosophically agree with the first post but my experience differs. At my previous job I was a partner and did all the hiring etc. 80% of employees were licensed professionals and the rest were on the way (in theory). I was in that position for 22 years. In that time the demand for work was exponential and the quality of applicants was in the other direction. No amount of positive reinforcement, training, etc is going to fix that dynamic but we tried. I left and started my own company about 8 years ago. We practice tough love here. Either you contribute to expectation or you’re going to be publicly shamed or fired. Everyone has excelled. I’ll never go back. |
|
Quoting the RZA, as a manager and a leader, imo, the first rule is "drunk or sober never lose your composure." One of the most important lessons my boss taught me going into management was that you can only motherfucker someone so many times before they stop listening to you. Listen first, interpret, get all the facts and info before jumping to conclusions. |
"O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small."
|
I’m not a manager but I’m a field lead. I make sure everyone has my number and make myself available as much as humanly possible to help them, teach them, or do for them when their schedules are buggerd up. I try hard not to criticize or poke fun, I compliment what they do right and teach what they did wrong in the hopes they’ll get to the point they call me less often. Some want to learn, some don’t, some won’t. |
|
I’ve managed large teams and small. Some were young, inexperienced hotheads, some are aged veterans closing in on retirement (or even already retired and on a “second career”). The trick is to understand that each person works and responds a different way, but still being fair. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty; don’t make others do something you’re not willing to. But at the same time, things do need to be appropriately delegated. Ultimately, as a manager your job is to give them all the training and tools they need to do their job, then give them the authority and autonomy to do it. Coach, mentor, direct as needed. Make sure they know when they need to ask first, and then it should be “I want to do xyz, can I?” And not “what do you want me to do?” If they need a course correction, wait until you’re alone. Don’t interrupt or take away their control of a situation unless things are going to go real bad. Let them have small failures and then talk to them about it. Finally, the last big part is when something goes wrong, you insulate your people from the fallout. You are responsible. On the other hand, when things go right, you recognize how each contributed. |
|
Originally Posted By BuddyChryst: I’ve managed large teams and small. Some were young, inexperienced hotheads, some are aged veterans closing in on retirement (or even already retired and on a “second career”). The trick is to understand that each person works and responds a different way, but still being fair. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty; don’t make others do something you’re not willing to. But at the same time, things do need to be appropriately delegated. Ultimately, as a manager your job is to give them all the training and tools they need to do their job, then give them the authority and autonomy to do it. Coach, mentor, direct as needed. Make sure they know when they need to ask first, and then it should be “I want to do xyz, can I?” And not “what do you want me to do?” If they need a course correction, wait until you’re alone. Don’t interrupt or take away their control of a situation unless things are going to go real bad. Let them have small failures and then talk to them about it. Finally, the last big part is when something goes wrong, you insulate your people from the fallout. You are responsible. On the other hand, when things go right, you recognize how each contributed. Exactly! I manage a small team of electrical SMEs at a huge facility. Each one has a speciality, but they are all cross trained and any of them will come in at any hour of any day for any problem, if I call. We teach and train the area electricians and set the standards for the mill. They learn from the small failures I allow them to make, but I won’t let them make a huge mistake - all failures are on me. We smoked a pair of 250hp DC motors a couple of years ago working on the field circuits - I explained to the mill management team that it was my mistake. The biggest thing is to explain why we do what we do. I was in production several years and know how the process works better than a lot of the production managers. I always explain to my guys why we are doing something, and the ramifications. That goes further than anything to motivate them. I managed 40 operators years ago, then did the corporate SME thing for years, now doing this. This by far is the best. |
Originally Posted By CavVet:
I LOVE my Country, but I absolutely despise some of the fucking weasels working for my government.
I LOVE my Country, but I absolutely despise some of the fucking weasels working for my government.