When you get used to quickly translating difficult problems into solvable tasks, you will begin to be burdened by the tendency of people to worry in vain, the unconstructiveness of employees will hit you in the eyes and the illiterate posing of questions will hurt your ears.
Reframe this problem into a problem: what can I do to make people around me use the same algorithm more often and less often load themselves (and me) with illiterate questions and empty experiences?
At a minimum, do not be like those whose reactions seem stupid to you: do not resent them yourself and do not throw critical remarks at them. More reasonable means usually turn out to be: 1) preliminary training, 2) operational (situational) adjustment and, if possible, operational training, 3) technical «taxiing out» — avoiding problem traps.
Of these options, pre-training is optimal, and operational adjustment is the most typical.
Order to be carried out
When giving an order, the manager must be sure that the employees really understand what, how and why they should do it. But this full-fledged understanding is possible only when the leader fully brings them up to date, passing on to them, in fact, the entire chain “problem — goals — specific steps” that he has thought through. Therefore, the core of any order is the following points:
- crux of the problem
- a task
- specific steps to implement it (usually along with a clear indication of who is responsible for what)
- report on the results (when and in what form).
Responding to unprepared questions
Until your employees communicate unskilledly and have not learned how to formulate prepared questions, they will often strain you. A typical situation: you give an order to solve a certain problem (in the competence of the employee, but the task is not easy and the responsibility hangs), and the employee says: “Yes, but I don’t understand …” and “But how is it?”, — and, in fact , after the question, the question here and now (as long as you formulate a task for it) passes over to you the solution of this problem.
You gave him tasks, and he plays the fool and, asking unprepared questions, makes the task solve you. Do you need it?
What to do? In the long term, such an employee is either fired or trained, but for now, offer him not to discuss his “how” now, but to take a period (for example, a day), so that by this time he will come to you with his own draft solution (with solution options ). Discussing which, he will no longer ask you questions “But how is this?”, But you will ask him. And he will be prepared to answer you. Quality employees ask prepared questions!
Employee talking to management
If an employee has a problem and he decides to turn to management for help in solving it, then with a competent approach, if he wants the manager to understand him adequately, he must use the logical chain: «problem — analysis of causes — solutions — means». Taking into account the roles of «boss-subordinate», the address scheme in this case takes the following form:
- What is the problem (data: the essence of the problem and its consequences) — reportage, without horror and emotional exaggeration, without repetition: clear consistent facts.
- Solutions (preferably several). Sometimes it makes sense here to sort out the reasons (as specifically as possible and with access to “what to do”) — but without categoricalness and accusations. Dismantling with the guilty is done in a different technique. And also in another position and in another place.
- What do you need from the boss (hints, calls to someone, money, and his other resources) to correct (your vision of ways and means) — only without insisting that this is it and immediately. The manager decides, not you.
- What are you ready to take on (do it yourself) — in a business style, without presenting yourself as a hero for this.
For details, see Format of request for help.
New rules for business correspondence