The Workplace Coach

Like so many of us you probably started at the bottom. You worked hard, you did your time, honed your craft and you’ve been promoted accordingly. You’ve been recognised as the technical expert, and people have started looking to you for advice. Lately even the boss has been asking you what you think and, surprise surprise, actually listens and acts on your suggestions.

This are going well and you go into the next promotion round feeling confident. You’ve been with the company for a while now, you introduced a few innovations that paid off, you’ve trained up a few of the new kids. You blitz the interview and before you know it you’ve got a new title, your own office and an under cover car park.

You also have a team reporting to you. The same team that you came up in. The same team that has been chronically short staffed for a long time. The same team that has for the last year had low engagement, performance problems, budget pressures, resource pressures and deadlines to meet. The same team that the last manager gave up on and left the company, creating the vacancy that you have just been promoted into.

So where do you start?

The above describes the journey of many managers. A client of mine needed some help with exactly this scenario. The manager wasn’t coping, the team culture was deteriorating and performance was on a steep downhill slide. In fact, the behaviours being displayed by the manager, who was himself under intense pressure to turn things around, was starting to get highly inappropriate to the point where it was creating a psycho social hazard for the rest of the team.

Objectively, I would normally say that this manager just needs some coaching and development, some mentoring, some clear expectations about how we want him to manage his team. Find someone to help him understand how he impacts other people, how his mood sets the tone for the whole team, how people need to be able to rely on him to get them back on track in a safe and harmonious way.

The behaviours I’m talking about include shouting, yelling, swearing and abusing people in his team. He would explode without warning, start ranting and making derogatory comments about his people to their face or to others. He throws things, slams his desk or his keyboard. Seriously, this guy seems to come unhinged at the slightest thing and the team are constantly walking on eggshells around him. It’s not a great environment.

Here’s my point.

I firmly believe that leadership, people management, effective teamwork and exceptional communication can be learned. I’ve based my whole career on this belief. It’s what I do for my clients.

I am also of the view that some people just aren’t cut out for a leadership role. Some people make excellent technical specialists but just don’t have the temperament to manage people. They lack a self awareness, they lack the empathy, patience, communication skills that are the basics for any leader. They lack the self control to regulate their emotions and reactions to whatever crisis or pressures might be happening.

If you think about Malow’s hierarchy, if you spend a few minutes looking at Lencioni’s Pyramid, if you flick through any Simon Sinek book, you will understand that your people need to feel safe, understood, heard, valued and respected in order to do their best work. They need to be able to trust each other, and they need to trust that the boss has their best interests at heart. Without all of this you have a dysfunctional team, one where people will be looking for the exit.

The old adage rings true… people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.

As an executive in your company, think about who you have entrusted these management roles to. Are they really suited for the role? Should they actually be managing teams of people? The reality is that some people just aren’t cut out for this gig. You will be doing your company, that team, and that poor manager a giant disservice by putting them in that role. If they are a technical expert them let them do what they are good at, and go find an amazing people manager to start managing your people.

If you resonate with any of this and would like to explore how we might help you deal with some of your sticky people issues, shoot an email through to info@theworkplacecoach.com.au and we’ll be in touch. We can help, it’s what we do.