Sometimes, Don’t Use the Whip | No BS Coaching Advice
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Most managers tend to use a whip.
Stupid Hiring Mistakes: Not Preparing or Coaching Hiring Managers
Someone reminded recently me that sometimes managers have one mode of operating– they beat their employees into submission. They take the spirit away from them. They punish 
them unless they are perfect according to their standards. I’m not saying that you should tolerate screw ups. Screw-ups need to be corrected. A lot of managers seem to operate in one mode.
I was reminded this week of this behavior in working with a solopreneur that I coach who reminded me of something years ago. I had employee working for me who really wanted to do well. She was a beginner who really want to do well commuting 2 hours each way to our offices from New Jersey. She would make calls at night having a dinner of a slice of pizza that you thrown in the oven, making very little money and wasn’t getting the results that she wanted.
I sat her down in my office one day, a few months after she joined. She had been doing this for a few months and was crying. “This is it working! It’s awful!” She was really trying and she cared. I sat her down and send her resume going to say to you now, “You are trying too hard. People can hear the desperation in your voice, you don’t quite know what you doing it and trying to use incredible effort in order to get things done. It is not working for. What I want you to do is leave a little bit earlier, get home, get some sleep, relax a little bit. PLAY! Have some fun. ” She became a great performer for me.
Recently, a solopreneur I have been coaching came to me because business was mediocre, he was in a situation related to sell his firm, sell his lease or handle his lease in some way because he was having financial problems. He was trying to improve his practice but he couldn’t get a grip on what to do to change things. We spoke about a number of tactics and eventually implemented a few. Ultimately, the bigger picture was for him to feel good about himself.
No one wants to date someone who seems desperate. No one wants to do business with someone who seems desperate. If you are a manager who is managing people who are trying, but tactics are not working and you need to try new ones.
What triggered this was noticing that on YouTube, there are people who are making a great living by developing content that doesn’t teach people anything but it is fun! You know. Fun! People enjoy themselves! They feel better as a result.
You can create stuff. You can create contests. You can create situations where people feel good about themselves, even while you and they are struggling. It doesn’t need any money. It can be a 30 minute break while everyone watches YouTube and share his comments. There are millions of possibilities only limited by your imagination.
You need a break, too, just like some of these folks. You can’t always be whipping the horse and expecting the horse to respond. Eventually the horse in the race that is being whipped doesn’t respond to the whip. The jockey loses them, right? You may be losing some of your employees.
Don’t always go to the whip. Fool them. For yourself. Have some fun! Bring the spirit of play into your office again. Stop beating them up. You’ll find that if you make a switch, that is not good be instantaneous, if you bring some flexibility to your response, they can’t anticipate when you’re going to say, “Oh. You screwed up!” Because you’re not good be constantly beating them up. You’re going to be encouraging them to have fun, remind them they make a mistake how to correct it without punishing them, using awareness that doesn’t indicate any judgment on your part.
You can say something along the lines of, “Hey, I know you want to do a good job but I think you messed up in this case. I know you know better, but you might’ve tried this.”
“Yeah yeah yeah. I got it. As soon as I got off the phone with the customer…” You know what it’s like. Sometimes we all make mistakes… Even you!
Instead of always bringing out the whip, try things a little easier sometimes.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search,
hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2600 episodes.
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