“Shit! Why I didn’t do that?”
That has likely happened to you sometime! Well, the good part is that it teaches us priceless lessons. If you think you should do something, you probably have to. In management, we can face this kind of situations everyday. So, pay attention on your feeling, and don’t lose the proper time to do the right thing.
A Useful Story
See the following case that has happened in a certain company: The manager I will tell the story was hired to restructure the area. His boss told him to give transparency to the area, to make people follow procedures, and stop bad behaviour from the team members. So, the manager starts revising all the procedures of the department, disciplining behaviours, improving efficiency, and making the department to be more transparent on doing its duties.
One of the responsibilities of the manager was to sign all the travel expenses report of his team. But, in order to do that effectively, he used to revise the items and even the calculations made. In this report, people list the expenses they had in order to be paid back. One day, one member of his team brought a travel report with 3 receipts for just one dinner (in the same day!), from two different restaurants. Obviously, the manager calls the guy and asked him why 3 receipts for just one dinner, since the company did not pay meals for guests, only for the employee. The guy said that it was a mistake (definitely, it didn’t seem). He asked for the report back so he could make the corrections. Next day he brought it with just one receipt for that dinner. This same team member was used to not follow the processes of the area, so, the challenge of that manager was huge.
One day, having a lunch with his boss, this manager was talking about this guy and his bad behaviour. His boss said promptly: fire him! But, the manager did not do that; since he was trying to change the behaviour of this guy, as of some others. Sometime later, this team member starts conspiring against the manager, and the difficulties for this manager grew up, mainly after his boss quit the job to take another opportunity in other company. Before the manager’s boss to leave, he advised this manager for keeping alert about intrigues involving him.
The new boss took over the position and two months later he produced a completely fake work evaluation of this manager, with very low grades (even though this manager was considered a good manager by his former boss) and fired him. Then, the new boss put a “friend” in the manager position.
Moral of Story
So, the moral of the story is, do not keep people with bad character in your team, no matter what! People with bad character can make alliance with other people with bad character!
How do I know about the details of this story? Because that manager was me.
Even though I believe that good things always happened with good people (and after this episode, a lot of good things has happened to me, in my career), the point here is: always keep in control! So, do the right thing, in the right moment!
