1 : to find fault with : CENSURE
Now I don't want to tell anyone how to do their job, well that's not true, I do want to tell many people...but I won't. I know what I believe are good managerial qualities and what are not. I see countless examples of what shouldn't be done. In fact, I'm thinking of pitching it as an idea for a new show, "What Not To Do if You're a Manager". What I need are two catty, bitchy people to call these managers on their managerial faux-pas...oh wait, I'm in so that leaves only one opening to fill.
The number one "what not to do" thing this week is blaming others. People screw up - it's true. The ball gets dropped, the lines get crossed, heads get buried in the sand (or in other people's asses)...whatever the reason, it happens. What shouldn't happen is a manager saying to other managers (or anyone for that matter) that something didn't get done because of so-and-so messed up.
WRONG!
Yes they screwed up, but you are responsable for that person. It is your job to ensure that that person knows what to do, when it's due, and whether it's on track.
A second type of blame is the kind of blame that just doesn't make sense.
Like this example: a manager accepts an invitation to attend a brief meeting at 1:00pm. Focus on the word accepts. He then walks in to the meeting 15 minutes late - as it is ending. His excuse, well it shouldn't have been scheduled so close to the lunch hour. But, but, but....you knew it began at 1:00pm and you accepted this and agreed to be there at this time. Don't blame the person who took the time to schedule the meeting and send out invites.
Second example ( oddly enough it's about the same manager) has the manager stumbling around trying to find work for a summer student to do. This student, up until this morning, was helping one associate. The work was completed. Now the manager is ticked off because he was not advised that the student was out of jobs to do. Why wasn't he told? He is not prepared to deal with this - someone should have warned him.
Okay. Take a deep breath.
The student finished the work yesterday afternoon at 4pm. It is now 8am the next day. What kind of frickin' warning should he have gotten? Should we have called him last night to advise him?
Please, please, please keep it in perspective. You are not prepared and it's not because someone didn't tell you that the student was doing his job. It's not because the concept of finishing work that is started is foreign to you. It's not because others are able to manage the student. You are not prepared because you are unorganized and unable to manage people - don't blame this on others.
We start this blame game early on ("She did it!" "He made me do it"), but most of us outgrow this tendency and start to take responsibility for our actions. Like these words that I'm typing - I could say that the devil made me do it or that my manager's ineptitude has forced me to do, but the truth is that I made the conscious decision to share these thoughts.
So, despite what Milli Vanelli told you, you can't blame it on the rain - be prepared to get wet if you don't listen to the weather forecast, look out the window, and bring an umbrella.
No comments:
Post a Comment