There was a gentleman named Ted that I’d met at a meet and greet event I had attended several years ago. Ted was the Head Supervisor of an Automotive Company, and his responsibilities included handling the schedules, motivating the team before they began their shift, training the new hires, reviewing the inventory in the back and covering for his manager when he was out of office. Ted had been with this Automotive Company for just over 8 years. He never missed a day of employment, and had always done his best. Ted never complained about anything, and the managers felt that he was a valued employee.
The problem was that Ted would go home to his wife and complain about his job almost every day for the last year. But why? If he was valued and he was doing such a great job, and he had built such great rapport with his team – why was Ted complaining?
He started his story to me, with “I always thought I’d run the department” – and then went into an entire overview of why he didn’t really like his job. To him, it was because – it didn’t pair correctly with what he had envisioned he would be doing. He said he felt that he had settled. Here is what I said to him – ‘Just okay is unacceptable’.
If it wasn’t acceptable for him – why was he continuing to try and accept it?
The truth of the matter was that Ted did not want to be there – for the wrong reasons. Ted enjoyed the work and the people. He was good at his job. His managers also knew he was good at his job. The problem was – no one was telling him that. Ted was craving recognition. But he needed to communicate that to his manager so that the manager would have an opportunity to respond.
The funny thing was that when I shared this thought with Ted – that he needed to communicate this to his manager, Ted looked at me as if he had heard this for the very first time.
What is wrong with that? In the employee – employer relationship – the communication runs as a 2 way street. When we don’t say what we really mean and expect another person to read between the lines, what we are really doing is asking that person to help us fail. And we are also failing ourselves. Just Okay is Unacceptable.
Ted sent me an email several weeks after our talk and this is what he said to me:
“Thank you.”
When I saw Ted again a few years later, I’d asked him how things were going. He was still employed with that Automotive Company. He told me that he had gone to his Manager and asked him for recognition. They had sat down and talked about exactly what Ted needed for recognition, in order to feel motivated in his position. The recognition Ted needed was different than what the Manager thought he was giving to him. I asked Ted if he felt he was still just ‘okay’ with his position. Do you know what he responded with? “No, just okay is unacceptable.”
until next time …
Crystal E. Singh, BHRM, CHRP
EmpowerYourPeople 