The Workplace Coach

I was chatting to a senior manager yesterday about a supervisor in his team. Apparently the senior manager had received a couple of complaints about the supervisor from two junior staff members. The complaints related to the supervisor’s communication style, his lack of self awareness, his very directive and authoritative manner with his staff.

The senior manager said he is looking to remedy the situation by engaging an external investigator to come in and try to ascertain, by interviewing all parties plus potentially a few other team members as ‘witnesses’, whether or not the behaviours exhibited by the supervisor might qualify as misconduct. And, if there is a finding of misconduct, then the senior manager would be looking to hit the supervisor with some disciplinary action.

Can anyone see a problem with this approach?

I suggested that this sounds more like a performance issue, a lack of capability or competency, something that might be addressed in a proactive, positive and developmental way. An open conversation with the supervisor, explaining in explicit terms the behaviours and leadership style that we want to see from him in the future. We could even offer him some coaching. The supervisor would no doubt appreciate the support and work to change his ways.

The senior manager didn’t agree. He wants to send a message about what is okay and what’s not okay. He even suggested that the behaviours are possibly bullying in the workplace, and he won’t have it in his team. The two complainants didn’t mention bullying, that was the senior manager’s interpretation.

I suggested perhaps a mediation approach? We could get the supervisor and the two staff members in a room and work towards agreeing to a more constructive communication style that might work for them. That way we are acknowledging the problem, and working positively with all parties towards a healthy resolution that will allow these people to continue to work together productively going forward.

The senior manager wants a misconduct investigation.

I pointed out that in my experience when you go down the misconduct pathway, if the result is anything less than termination of employment, then you’ve just bought yourself a longer term problem. The supervisor and staff members will never, ever, ever be able to work productively together again. The supervisor will only be a temporary fixture in the team, disengaged. He will stay and do just enough not to get fired, with a lousy attitude, for as long as it takes him to find another role. The two staff members will also look to move to another team because how could they continue to work for this person?

The senior manager wants a misconduct process.

I had one more question for the senior manager. I asked him if he had ever sat down with the supervisor and had a conversation about behavioural expectations in the workplace? I asked him to keep in mind that the supervisor’s management style had served him well for his whole career and got him to where he is today. There’s a good chance that nobody has ever asked him to reflect on his style, to change the way he manages, to evolve, grow and develop his leadership skills. I’m going to bet that nobody has ever invested in helping him become a better people leader.

The senior manager replied that no… he hadn’t had a conversation with the supervisor in which he explicitly described the behaviours he is looking for from him. He said that he doesn’t think he should have to tell someone that it’s not okay to raise your voice and talk over people in the workplace. It seems that he expects supervisors in his team to be mind readers and just intuitively understand what he expects from them.

So… now it looks like we are going down a misconduct pathway. It’s going to end badly.

Imagine how different work would be if we started taking a positive developmental approach to dealing with these types of issues, rather than a negative punitive approach. Imagine if we treated people as though they were family members rather than disposable, replaceable resources to be ‘managed’. Imagine if we actually worked to help people be better, rather than looking to punish them for not being mind readers.

If you are a senior manager, you will need to deal with these issues at some stage. I want to encourage you to please take a humanistic approach. Ask yourself, if it were me in this position, how would I want my senior manager to deal with this?