When an employee thinks they’re the employer, you have a recipe for ego-mad disaster with a workplace derailment imminent. So, what can a manager do when their newly hired employee starts calling the shots like a boss? During meetings. In front of stakeholders. Firing off group emails about workplace culture and the like?
Sure, the initiative is welcome and embraced (to a point), but we all need to know our roles and responsibilities. A level-jumping employee can divide the room quicker than a sinkhole. But what to do? First, have a private chat with said colleague and explain their role in full, as well as the time-honoured structure of a business.
Get HR involved if needed. Does the employee have points to make before a meeting? Excellent. Run them by your employer, then they will be aware of it and not feel ambushed in a meeting with key funders. It’s an awkward situation and super unprofessional. We all embrace collaboration, but a major email comes from the top, not from an employee still on probation. There will be time to shine, so just give it time.
Ready to check yo’ self before you wreck yo’ self?
The Daily Scrum
Scrums have been a part of workplaces for a while now but not everyone uses the technique to its full advantage. There is generally a lead or ‘scrum master’, whip-arounds, post-it notes and plenty of coffee on the go. Scrums are inspirational and fire up the team before a workday, arming us with the knowledge and direction needed to smash deadlines and produce our most effective work.
If an employee is getting ahead of themselves, it’s a top way to get their voice heard in a constructive way. It’s all about seeing what sticks with ideas before going off on a tangent in an already precarious work meeting.
Backlogs, sprints, goals, domination. Rinse, repeat. Introduce a daily scrum to your workday and watch in awe as the vision and productivity of your team goes to another level. The term “Scrum” is derived from authors Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, who made an analogy comparing high-performing, cross-functional teams to the scrum formation used by rugby teams.
Head down, bum up.
Courageous Convos
Have the courage to engage in prickly chats and create a more unified workplace because these conversations are all the rage in workplaces. They can be professional, and personal, to do with organisational fit, and more, but the gist is to get to a root cause of an issue in a relaxed one-on-one. It’s a time to open up and clear the air; to nip issues in the bud.
The art of a courageous conversation is to listen intently, offer solutions, look for positives and never blame. It allows both parties to speak and clarify what they need and from there, a plan is devised.
The key is to guide the conversation towards an ideal conclusion without traversing pain points or emotional triggers in someone else. Be direct, keep emotions in check, but most importantly, your ears open, because all workplace issues revolve around the art of listening.
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