

How to Manage Employees When They Make Mistakes - amirmc
http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/09/30/how-to-manage-employees-when-they-make-mistakes/

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hopeless
One of the things that was drilled into me in the cadets was that you can
delegate responsibility for a task, but not accountability. Ultimately, when
things go wrong it's your fault not theirs. Perhaps they didn't have the
skills, resources or experience required. Perhaps something unexpected came
up. Ultimately, their failure is your failure as a manager and that's what you
need to remember. Rarely was a bit of shouting required and when it was it was
more about motivation than discipline.

"Praise people publicly, but discipline people privately" This goes doubly if
you need to criticise someone who has to manage others

~~~
gaius
_One of the things that was drilled into me in the cadets was that you can
delegate responsibility for a task, but not accountability._

Me too, but unfortunately it doesn't work like that in most organizations.
Your boss's full time job, as he sees it, is to take credit for your successes
and give you the blame for his failures. That's _why_ he chose to become a
manager rather than staying hands-on.

------
skowmunk
Pretty good list of management wisdom. I would have to disagree about one
point though:

 _6\. Praise people publicly, but discipline people privately_

I used to completely agree with this earlier, but somebody(can't recall who)
pointed a problem with this principle, a while ago.

Most things in the work place even if 'done' by one person has contributions
from many to enable that person complete that assignment/task/project.
Praising that one person in front of others can make the other feel shorted.

I would prefer to do this: "Discipline people privately and praise people
privately, unless it is the whole team that is being praised"

Of course, there are always special occasions, when one has to boost up the
standing of an employee in front of others, in preparation for bigger roles.

my 2c

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mattm
A pretty good list of rules to go by.

Also I think it's important to have a look at the system which enabled the
person to make the mistake.

One story a former colleague told me about a former workplace. The company
would issue commission checks every month to their sales people. For some
reason, they were using a spreadsheet to calculate the totals. A new hire in
charge of the spreadsheet to issue checks did a sort on the names but didn't
include the other columns to be sorted together. As a result, some people who
just started working there got issued checks for thousands of dollars and some
of them took off with the money. It resulted in months of headaches as the
company attempted to sort everything out.

The person who accidentally sorted the spreadsheet got fired. However, no one
else got disciplined. IMO, the people who allowed this system to be setup and
used are the people who should have been responsible.

~~~
skowmunk
I would agree, that the people who set up the system should have atleast
reviewed the work of the newbie, if they don't have a proper process
documentation for managing it. (I often found, that excel based worksheets,
though used extensively and sometimes for some really big stuff, are not
accompanied by decent documentation)

I like to think, that when an employee doesn't perform well, there are three
major sources of factors contributing towards that bad performance: 1) the
employee 2) the management immediately above him/her 3) The top management
which consiously or otherwise sets up the prevalent culture, which often can
be an enabler or a disabler of performances.

In reality though, it could be a mix of factors from any one or more sources,
in varying proportion.

------
chc
I can't think of a situation where punishing someone for a mistake as though
they were a misbehaving child is a remotely good idea.

If it's an honest mistake — that is, the employee honestly tried to make
something work but it just wasn't happening — the employee requires help in
achieving his goals, not abuse.

If the mistake shows gross incompetence or negligence, the employee should be
fired.

Keeping someone around but killing their morale is a poor choice in both
scenarios (unless we're making the assumption that you are only capable of
hiring morons).

------
weel
In the economic analysis of law there is a standard argument that goes like
this:

If you punish a crime more severely, people will do less of it. But you have
to be careful. If you punish both murder and shoplifting by death, a
shoplifter who is being pursued by a cop might as well shoot the cop—he has
nothing to lose.

~~~
neild
It is my understanding that severity of punishment is not strongly correlated
with reduced incidence of the behavior being punished. _Consistency_ of
punishment is strongly correlated. That is, a minor punishment consistently
applied is far more effective at controlling behavior than a severe punishment
inconsistently applied.

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danilocampos
The problem with advice like this is that, as a result of following it, you
become a phony. The "don't go back to being buddy buddy" stuff is just odd.
It's manipulative at worst and unnatural and uncomfortable at best.

My philosophy is this: If you're half competent at choosing your team and
someone you lead isn't performing, it's probably your fault. So before you
decide that "your employees have made a mistake," you should probably be clear
on whether not _you made a mistake_ first.

Are the expectations clear? I bet you they're not. Leading people means
exhaustive communication, especially about details and success conditions. If
you're not sharing this stuff, you're not providing useful leadership.

Have you communicated the stakes? If something is important, don't assume that
everyone else knows that. What makes it important? Why should anyone else
case?

Are you available to help? If you're not making time to check in and support
as unexpected complexities of the task crop up, you're in for some nice
surprises at the end.

When people fail to meet the needs and expectations of the task, are you
direct about it or do you pretend everything is cool? Do you look for
opportunities to teach about the failing, explain what was disappointing? Most
importantly, do you point out how to do better next time?

When people do outstandingly well, do you recognize that?

The tl;dr of this: getting what you want from people is a combination of being
proactive and communicating. Not micromanaging, not being a babysitter, not
being a bully, not being a softie.

Be direct, don't expect anyone to read your mind, understand you're part of
the process as a leader.

(All this collected from being led by extraordinary leaders, lazy ones, and
outright terrible ones.)

~~~
skowmunk
_.... exhaustive communication, especially about details ....._ and
_....communicating. Not micromanaging, not ..._

I agree with some of your points, but aren't the 'details" and 'not
micromanaging' statments conflicting in what you say?

~~~
danilocampos
You could definitely take it too far and enter that territory, yes.

I'm saying the difference between "Build me a house by next week" and "Build
me a house large enough for four people with a garage and laundry facilities.
If we're missing those things, we won't be competitive."

Especially outside of technical realms, it's nauseatingly common for requests
to go under-specified, leading to a bunch of wasted work once everyone circles
back and realizes "Oh, forgot to tell you about..."

~~~
skowmunk
That is true, quite often time and work gets wasted because the right specs
are not decided or not communicated or the right questions not asked up front
.

As a supplier of data analysis and reports to cost cutting/six sigma projects,
I have seen it too many times where some project leaders don't go by the 'data
first' principle. They pre-decide the direction of the project with no or
minimal data and then go about collecting selective data supporting their
direction.

~~~
Ras_
>>They pre-decide the direction of the project with no or minimal data and
then go about collecting selective data supporting their direction.

I associate this behavior with (impulse) buying. Some like to think they are
buyers who base their decisions on rationale rather than feelings, when in
reality they buy based on emotion only to rationalize it later.

------
thaumaturgy
People, especially in management, _really_ need to read and understand
Kohlberg's theory of moral development [1] before comparing adult incentivized
behavior with the behavior of children.

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_de...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development)

------
jodrellblank
So if his rules are "point out what went wrong, describe what he wanted, work
with the employee to alter things so it wont happen again", where does
"punishment" and "distance" come into it at all? Why is it good that for
several days his employee feels unable to talk to him about anything? Who does
that benefit?

So his expected and desired situation outcome was different from the actual
outcome and he's disappointed, or angry, or whatever. Why does that give him
the right to 'punish' someone else? His inaccurate mental model (based on a
poor understanding of his employee) -> his problem.

What if his 'punishment' doesn't work because the employee _isn't_ "crushed",
what if the employee is indifferent to being shouted at or distanced?

The only thing which matters is how to alter things so it's better next time
That's it. That might mean process changes, or not giving that responsibility
to that employee, or replacing that employee. Anything else is railing against
the unchangable past.

(Also, how to deal with children is not a good framework for how to deal with
adults).

~~~
frossie
_Why is it good that for several days his employee feels unable to talk to him
about anything? Who does that benefit?_

Agreed, I am completely uncomfortable with that. Once you indicate to someone
that you do not trust them, why should they trust you?

The sad thing is that he is actually sounding reasonable to himself (and to
others I am sure), because he is advocating against an even worse behaviour
(like yelling at people).

 _Also, how to deal with children is not a good framework for how to deal with
adults_

Agreed, but it's not like his childrearing advice is that great either. Yeah,
you can threaten to take the lego away from two fighting children, but it's
better to teach them the skills to negotiate possession.

~~~
msuster
I understand why you would be uncomfortable about it. But I firmly believe
that giving an employee time to reflect on what went wrong & why is important.
And they need distance to achieve this. If you're immediately chummy with them
after a failure then this time of reflection is less likely. I know it doesn't
sit well with everybody so I'm not asking you to adopt my style. But it is not
manipulative and actually is quite effective.

~~~
amirmc
_> But I firmly believe that giving an employee time to reflect on what went
wrong & why is important. And they need distance to achieve this._

I agree with you on this but I see a distinction between being 'cold and
distant' vs 'not chummy'. The latter seems appropriate but the former seems
counter productive (at least it would be with me).

My impression is that you mean the latter but I can see how the original post
might be read as meaning the former.

~~~
msuster
Perhaps my language didn't properly reflect my thoughts. I did mean the
latter. thank you.

------
Mz
_But when they’re being naughty an “I’ll buy you ice cream if you’re good”
approach doesn’t work and isn’t warranted. I much simpler, “if I have to come
over there and separate you two, you’re going to lose your lego set for a
week” yields better results. Not with a yell. Certainly never with violence.
But with heat._

I didn't parent that way at all. I see no reason why my parenting style
wouldn't work equally well as a management style. My sons are 20 and 23 and
are fanatically loyal to me, even when I am sick and under stress and wigging
out on them like some kind of lunatic. I don't punish. Discipline and
punishment are not the same thing and the fact that the word "discipline" has
come to be a euphemism for punishment is just commentary on how rampantly
common it is to punish kids rather then teach them how and why to do things.
Did I take things away from them sometimes? Yes. But only to remove the
problem, not as a form of punishment. And I did not threaten. Threats are a
weak stance and they breed disrespect and fear, neither of which is anything I
want from anyone generally, let alone my kids.

