It Still Hurts…

As a leader, we want our team to succeed.  I got a phone call today from a manager in a panic.

It took me a few minutes to calm him down.  No screaming or yelling, just frustration in his voice.

Here are the basic details.

Last week, he had to give discipline to a worker that had several mistakes over the last year.  This person had basically destroyed 5 production lots of material in four different circumstances.   The cost to the business was pushing close to $50,000.

He sat the individual down and got his side of the story for the most recent incident.  Basically, the employee said ‘I got in a hurry (again) and I screwed up.’  The manager pushed trying to figure out if there was a system problem.  But unfortunately there wasn’t.  It was strictly operator error.

So, it was ultimately decided to give this person a ‘last chance warning’.  In addition, the person would have to go through career counseling to try to figure out what the issue behind these repeated errors were.

After giving the individual off a week with no pay, the employee complied and contacted the career coach.

Two days after his suspension, a repeat failure occurred.  The employee walked to his manager and told him.  I know what I did and I am going home.  Please call me when you decide what you are going to do with me.

So, given that the employee has had a rough year at his home and up to this point, he has been a model employee, what do you do with him?

The manager wanted to know my answer.  I think he was looking for an excuse for not doing what we both knew he had to do.

He told me he did not want to have the hard conversation.  He told me, he could not look into the employee’s eyes without thinking about the negative impact this is going to have on his life.

My comment back to him…

“What about the other 200 employees at the site?  Why are you putting this one above all of them?”

Hard conversations are part of leadership.  We have to be fair to the employee, the business, and yourself all at the same time.

At times, this will hurt.  You are human.