Would you address this with your supervisee?

[kathybela]

Sept 28, 2012 20:45:44 GMT -5 kershnic said:

Argh. I think you're all right. But I'm really starting to hate this job and I can't seem to get this out of my head.

I'm coming to this late but the bolded part above really stood out to me ... is it possible that your staff are picking up on this somehow and the comment made is a reflection of this?

[thumper55]

don't say anything.
she is entitled to her opinion
do your thing and prove her wrong

[Deleted]

Sept 29, 2012 8:09:42 GMT -5 kathybela said:

Sept 28, 2012 20:45:44 GMT -5 kershnic said:

Argh. I think you're all right. But I'm really starting to hate this job and I can't seem to get this out of my head.

I'm coming to this late but the bolded part above really stood out to me ... is it possible that your staff are picking up on this somehow and the comment made is a reflection of this?

I was also thinking this.

[Deleted]

I don't know what your job is or what the training was about, so it is hard to say what the right approach is. I tend to think it is a bad idea to bring it up for the reasons many have stated. To a point, being management means that you will need to graciously accept criticism and use it to improve yourself. Getting upset that someone dared speak about you negatively won't do anything except make you look immature.

With that said, I think you could "debrief" the training with your staff (not just the one employee, maybe have 1 on 1 meetings with each). You could approach it from "since the training focused on these 5 items, I thought it would be useful if we each pick 1 or 2 that we want to focus on in particular, and if we help each other develop those things." This could open the conversation not only for you to be able to help coach your employees to improve, but for them to also provide you feedback. It's always awkward with subordinates giving feedback to supervisors, but I do think it is very important to hear their perspective and be actually willing to work on what they suggest.

If you are not willing to listen with an open mind and think about modifying your behavior, though (because you already feel their opinion is WRONG) then I wouldn't even go there.

[Deleted]

Going back to the point brought up of hating the job, maybe there is something to them sensing that.

Last summer I received feedback that my staff were not happy. When I thought about it, I definitely felt that I was having a lot of negative thoughts about my staff when it was really maybe 1 or 2 that were stressing me out. I also know that I tend to just get to the point with my emails which can be perceived as cold by some folks.

So I decided to intentionally be as nice as I could sincerely be without being fake. I would write any emails to my staff and then re-read them to add something nice like "have a great weekend" or whatever. I also starting taking a few minutes here and there to send handwritten note cards thanking people for their help, etc.

And probably what made the biggest change was just stopping using IM with my staff and going to talk to people face to face. More than anything I think this encouraged others to ask me questions when they saw me walk by that they might not have before. They started to see me as adding more value to the team--I knew all the same stuff as before and would always happily answer questions, I don't think they connected the dots that they weren't asking.

Basically it all seemed pretty silly to me since I am not really the type that needs all the flowery stuff, but some employees are. And it did help me become more positive when I forced myself to think of positive things. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive from staff after a month or two, so it really did make a difference.

Good luck with improving the situation. Definitely post if you would like help with any of the general issues.