Creating Self-Managing Employees
n.b. Prioritize the modules you want for your program.
A Primer for Supervisors and Managers: Well Begun is Half Done
Most of the problematic situations I have heard as coach, consultant, and trainer over a 25+ year period can be avoided by putting in place these preventive professional practices
Employees hear, "A high degree of professionalism is required in this job." Sounds good, but provides absolutely no direction. Learn to develop a professional repertoire, to think in terms appropriate to the job, work unit, organization.
Avoid major confrontations from the "git go." Clarify the job announcement, your description of it in the interview, and the employee's role prior to sealing the deal and contracting for the job. Begin your interview contact by recognizing that supervising is a two-way street. Get the applicant to acknowledge his own initiative and responsibility in coming in for the interview in the first place.
Before you say, "You've got the job." Make sure that the applicant knows what the job is. The time to clarify the job is not in the interview, but in the meeting you hold just prior to offering the applicant the job. Before you can get that essential agreement that the applicant accepts the job, the applicant has to understand it, or you do not have a contract to begin with.
One sub-set of this initial contracting is to make explicit expectations, rather than letting them lie fallow as "implied agreement," only to surface later with acrimony and complaint. Once surfaced, an expectation can be negotiated into a ground rule, or articulated as part of the work contract.
Orient employees to their job, their work unit, and the organization in its entirety. Most orientations cover one of these, or at best two. Each level has distinctive requirements. This is part of the contract. When the employee is late, it inconveniences other members of the work unit, an perhaps the organization as well.
Be clear about the performance requirements you have for the employee. State a specific level required within the probationary period. Make sure that the employee is clear about this, and also determined what resources will be required to meet those targets. Failure to set clear targets may mean keeping the employee on out of guilt, or letting him go due to lack of clear outcome measures and failure to adequately supervise him.
© Paul O. Radde, Ph.D., Author, Management Consultant, Psychologist