NO WARNING
I’VE GOT A LOT OF GOOD people working for me, but they’re too full of surprises. When they run into problems, I only find out after it’s too late. They always have a good excuse, so what should I do?”
The Danger Point
Leaders who are constantly being surprised allow it to happen. The first time an employee says, “Sorry, but I ran into a problem,” the leaders miss the point. They listen to the problem, work on it, and then move on to a new topic. In so doing, they are saying: “It’s okay to surprise me. If you have a legitimate excuse, stop what you’re doing, turn your efforts to something else, and then wait until I show up to spring the news.”
The Solution
Make it perfectly clear that once you’ve given an assignment, ...
Get Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Second Edition, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
