It is amazing the difference you feel as an employee when you work for a leader vs an authority. Night and day for me.
Sorry I do not believe in never firing an employee, granted I would never fire somebody without reason but still sometimes you have to thin the crop so the rest of the garden thrives.
Ted talks are great. here's one of my favorites: https://www.ted.com/talks/tony_port...-a&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
crap,,,,posted the wrong one https://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue
I’d agree with Sota and as a manager for more than 27 years I can say I have never fired a single employee. If you understand a company’s policies and codes of conduct and their relevance to your continued employment which is your responsibility to know, and you violate any one of them to the point of no longer being able to be employed you have terminated yourself through your actions, all your manager does is points out your performance or lack thereof as the reason that you have ended your own employment through those actions. Therefore I as a manager can say without question that in 27+ years of managing in a manufacturing environment all I have ever done is point out the reason someone has given up their right to work for the company through their own action or lack thereof. You terminate yourself through your actions unless your employer shuts down an entire dept. or facility then I’d say it is termination by management which fortunately I have not had to do.
I have had a couple of different types of leadership positions in life. I was a crew boss that took pick up hand crews of 20 people from different state and federal agencies from Minnesota to 9 different states to work wildfire. Each detail was 14 shifts long not counting travel days. Theses crews would have differing levels of experience but we always had sub supervisors that were responsible for 5 people but they were trained and qualified for their positions. That leadership is completely different than many other leadership positions in the private sector. You pretty much lived with the people you supervised for 2 weeks, you had to build cohesiveness while dealing with many different personalities in a stressful environment. I was blessed to have some very good mentors I learned a valuable lesson and it works well I use it in my current management position in the private sector. Give the people you are supervising ownership of the final product, or the production process do after action reviews on a regular basis where you review what was planed what actually happened and how can we do better. Give credit and praise but hold people accountable, thank them for their daily work and reward safe practices. Above all make sure that you are looking after them making sure they are getting what they need to do their job and that you are looking after them and making sure they are being compensated for the hours they work. It makes the final product better and makes your job easier.
Agree 100% respect your employees for who they are and what they contribute praise when appropriate and regularly, coach when needed define expectations up front, ask for their input (they are or should be the experts at their tasks) to improve the process / products and above all lead by example. If you want your people to succeed at a high level you have to be willing to go the extra mile to ensure they have been given all the tools both physically and intellectually to do so otherwise you have failed them as their manager.
