I recently led a workshop on leadership skills, during which several participants asked questions about managing people. A common theme underpinning these questions was their timidity as managers.
Several examples were related to employee entitlement and how these managers could more effectively deal with employees’ self-declared privileges.
Another example was an employee who was frequently absent under the auspices of FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act). The employee is entitled to the time off, but gives little notice each time, resulting in lack of coverage in the department. Who ends up covering? The manager.
My favorite, from a senior person in a high-tech company, was how to handle employees who couldn’t attend a mid-afternoon new product strategy meeting because they had an appointment to go mountain climbing (!).
In these cases, it’s up to you to set the tone and the ground rules of how things work in the office. If you don’t do this, your staff will roll over you and create their own ground rules.
When you establish expectations, you define an organizational culture. For example, when you request that employees provide reasonable notice when requesting time off, this results in an outcome of courtesy and professionalism. Expectations of employee accountability can strive to offset a mentality of entitlement.
This defines leadership. If you don’t establish expectations around professional decorum and responsibility, the outcome will be up for grabs.
No one wants to admit to being afraid of their employees. But truth be told, if you’re reticent to articulate your professional expectations, you aren’t leading.
“A change in weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves.”
– Marcel Proust
Header image by Alena Darmel/Pexels.
