Many of the actions in the workplace that are ascribed to lying, slights, or conspiracy are instead the result of unintentional disrespect.
How does that work? Very easily in a busy workplace.
- Co-worker A agrees to a course of action with co-worker B, later changes his or her position after receiving some new information, and due to the pressure of business fails to get back with B. When the new position emerges, B feels deceived.
- Manager Larry takes forever to return e-mails and phone calls from Manager Moe. Moe doesn't realize that Larry, who is inept and not intentionally impolite, does that with everyone. Moe assumes that Larry is targeting him.
- For the second year in a row, executives Mary and Carlos have overlooked one of their peers, Ellen, when it comes to listing people to make presentations at the company retreat. Ellen assumes they have it in for her but the omission was produced by two different subordinates who were using an outdated contact list.
An automatic reaction in many organizations is to dismiss these events as minor but I've seen these "no big deal" events produce major and lasting rifts. In one instance the rearrangement of an executive lobby was rapidly interpreted as a put-down of subordinates who once were able to enter certain areas but now had to go through a gatekeeper. The animosity lasted for years.
Having the antennae to spot potential respect problems is obviously an important diplomatic skill but it can also be a management one. After all, we are not moving robots; we are dealing with people.
And people are much more complicated.
3 comments:
Approach to "minor issues" you've described isn't limited to showing disrespect. I consider it as a general rule in many workplaces. So often minor problems are ignored and no one consider those small cute pigs as future ugly hogs.
The cost of leaving minor issues as they are is very high. And it's highest element isn't counted in bucks but in people emotions. Exactly as you've described it.
I've written a bit more about that case here.
Pawel,
Thank you for your comments. Getting leaders to pay attention to the small things is a major challenge since it is confused with micromanaging. Of course, sometimes micromanaging is necessary.
The difference between paying attention and micromanaging is small indeed, but it's also quite well seen. As a manager you're not supposed to clean all the mess alone - sometimes it's enough to point the problem and things will change. On the other hand sometimes it ends up with firing the employer, when the source of problem rejects to change. Then, it's usually the role of the manager to do the job personally.
And when talking about micromanaging, I think it's always bad, but that's a different discussion.
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