I just watched Bruce Tulgan’s latest video newsletter on how to manage employees with bad attitudes. After watching it, I found myself with a bad attitude.
Is it just me, or did you feel like you were being spoken to like a 5 year old?
Now, I read Bruce Tulgan’s book, “It’s OK to be the Boss” and, I can’t say it all worked for me (I continue to be a big fan of talent based management). However, he does raise some great points about managers needing to take accountability for, well… MANAGING. His view that too many managers aren’t stepping up to the job at hand, I completely agree with. Any time I hear any leader belly-aching about the problems with their teams, I just know there’s some general leadership lack of accountability happening.
Bruce’s point about dealing with behaviour is bang on. However, why is he speaking to us like we’re in a stage of arrested development? Is it because most managers don’t “get” how to talk about and break down behaviours with their staff? Maybe. However, this would have been a more effective take-away for me if I hadn’t spent have of the 3:14 second clip wanting to reach into my computer to throttle him.
It’s kind of ironic that a post about dealing with bad attitudes, actually gave me one!
I decided that I needed an unbiased opinion on this one, so asked my husband – a front-line mental health support worker – what he thought. About 2 minutes in he said “if this was my boss, I’d punch him.”
Soooo…. the leadership 101 take-away for today is: no matter how right your message, if the delivery is all wrong – you’re toast.
Happy leading.
