Sometimes...
Sometimes, when I hear him in the baby monitor... I check on him, just because I can.
2007-10-11
One Minute Manager
I recently got told to check out The One Minute Manager and was surprised to discover I've already been trying to do the things listed within. The principles are simple: Let people know what you expect of them, Let people know when they do something right, let people know when they do something wrong... and do it all within one minute.
I do stray from the book in one aspect, though. The One Minute Manager recommends that your reprimands be personal, stating how the coworker makes you feel when they fail to perform adequately. I think that this can seem confrontational. So when I have an issue with a particular behavior, I bring it up in shift meeting as a disembodied action... unattached to the person who performed it. This allows me to address the issue, rather than the person. I feel this empowers people. It makes them recognize they are part of a team, and the behavior is universally expected rather than singling them out as a bad seed.
What sometimes happens after I address an issue is that someone thinks it is cute and clever to re-personalize the issue. They will publicly fess up to the behavior and say, "That was me." This wouldn't be trouble if that was the end of it, but what invariably follows is a long list of excuses and partial justifications for a behavior I have just publicly stated is not acceptable. This turns my impersonal and simple one-minute goal session into a public and personal reprimand.
This does not make me happy, and more often than not, makes me feel as if the coworker is directly inhibiting my ability to do my job effectively. By subverting my attempts to cleanly address what is expected of the service staff, this person has made my work harder, aggrevated the relationship between management and staff, and turned policy into he-said/she-said. I sometimes wonder if you can see the hair on the back of my neck standing up during these times. I sometimes want to hiss like a snake and raise my hands like cat claws.
I want to be a good manager, but the restaurant industry is hell on me, sometimes.
I do stray from the book in one aspect, though. The One Minute Manager recommends that your reprimands be personal, stating how the coworker makes you feel when they fail to perform adequately. I think that this can seem confrontational. So when I have an issue with a particular behavior, I bring it up in shift meeting as a disembodied action... unattached to the person who performed it. This allows me to address the issue, rather than the person. I feel this empowers people. It makes them recognize they are part of a team, and the behavior is universally expected rather than singling them out as a bad seed.
What sometimes happens after I address an issue is that someone thinks it is cute and clever to re-personalize the issue. They will publicly fess up to the behavior and say, "That was me." This wouldn't be trouble if that was the end of it, but what invariably follows is a long list of excuses and partial justifications for a behavior I have just publicly stated is not acceptable. This turns my impersonal and simple one-minute goal session into a public and personal reprimand.
This does not make me happy, and more often than not, makes me feel as if the coworker is directly inhibiting my ability to do my job effectively. By subverting my attempts to cleanly address what is expected of the service staff, this person has made my work harder, aggrevated the relationship between management and staff, and turned policy into he-said/she-said. I sometimes wonder if you can see the hair on the back of my neck standing up during these times. I sometimes want to hiss like a snake and raise my hands like cat claws.
I want to be a good manager, but the restaurant industry is hell on me, sometimes.
Alabama Corruption Charges
I'll be interested to see if anything comes of this...
On may 8, 2002, Clayton Lamar (Lanny) Young Jr., a lobbyist and landfill developer described by acquaintances as a hard-drinking "good ole boy," was in an expansive mood. In the downtown offices of the U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, Ala., Young settled into his chair, personal lawyer at his side, and proceeded to tell a group of seasoned prosecutors and investigators that he had paid tens of thousands of dollars in apparently illegal campaign contributions to some of the biggest names in Alabama Republican politics. According to Young, among the recipients of his largesse were the state's former attorney general Jeff Sessions, now a U.S. Senator, and William Pryor Jr., Sessions' successor as attorney general and now a federal judge. Young, whose detailed statements are described in documents obtained by TIME, became a key witness in a major case in Alabama that brought down a high-profile politician and landed him in federal prison with an 88-month sentence. As it happened, however, that official was the top Democrat named by Young in a series of interviews, and none of the Republicans whose campaigns he fingered were investigated in the case, let alone prosecuted.
On may 8, 2002, Clayton Lamar (Lanny) Young Jr., a lobbyist and landfill developer described by acquaintances as a hard-drinking "good ole boy," was in an expansive mood. In the downtown offices of the U.S. Attorney in Montgomery, Ala., Young settled into his chair, personal lawyer at his side, and proceeded to tell a group of seasoned prosecutors and investigators that he had paid tens of thousands of dollars in apparently illegal campaign contributions to some of the biggest names in Alabama Republican politics. According to Young, among the recipients of his largesse were the state's former attorney general Jeff Sessions, now a U.S. Senator, and William Pryor Jr., Sessions' successor as attorney general and now a federal judge. Young, whose detailed statements are described in documents obtained by TIME, became a key witness in a major case in Alabama that brought down a high-profile politician and landed him in federal prison with an 88-month sentence. As it happened, however, that official was the top Democrat named by Young in a series of interviews, and none of the Republicans whose campaigns he fingered were investigated in the case, let alone prosecuted.