Who's Mistake Is It Anyway?

My friend's boss came to him early Monday morning all worked into a tether. He had been approached with an issue and had panicked when he didn't know the solution. My friend told him he had worked on the issue over the weekend and had sent the boss the problem outline, the solution and the follow-up in an e-mail brief. There was no problem. Instead of the boss going back to the e-mail or at the very least asking for a verbal update, he insisted on staying in the state of panic. He would not use his employees research, he could not admit he had over reacted, he had not done a good job of analyzing the situation, and his response was off base.

What did he accomplish? Well, the problem was already solved so that was a non issue. The employee, who had spent a part of his weekend solving the problem, felt under appreciated and had his integrity questioned. Because his boss could not give up his mistakes, he made the employee call the customer to again check out the situation. The customer was bothered on a Monday morning by having to deal with this non issue. It took an entire morning to go through all the steps demanded by this boss so he could justify his panic to himself. It did nothing for the issue. It irritated the customer. It made my friend loose respect for his boss and less inclined to work the next weekend on an issue. All because this boss could not admit his mistake and move on to something else.

This is a boss who has been placed in a new position and is trying to prove himself. To date, he has proved his ego and pride are more important than the work, the customer, or the employees. Daniel 5:20 "But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was disposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:" In my opinion, poor supervisory skills waste more time and do more to harm to employee moral than any other situation in the work place. The amount of money wasted (in the boss, employee and customer's time) could have been used to fund a wonderful supervisory training program. An entire morning wasted, four good hours of production and a whole host of attitude. Placing people in supervisory positions without proper training is on the same level as taking cold hard cash out of the business vault and throwing it out the back door. It's the same as telling customers and employees you have no "customer relations policy" nor "employee handbook". It starts a new supervisor on a crash course with a life time of poor supervisory skills, often dealing the kiss of death to a career.

If you, as a supervisor, have not been given proper or adequate training, sign up today for your company's in-house training. If it is not available, seek outside training. There are thousands of books, videos, seminars, and on-line information available. Ask a more senior and respected supervisor to be your mentor. Check out your church or denomination's resources. There is no excuse for a supervisor to act as my friend's did this Monday. The paybacks to him will be harsh some day. Proverbs 26:12 "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him."

Your commission is to make sure you are not as my friend's supervisor was this last Monday. In the end, it is between you and God how you will behave at work. It will be between you and God how you will be rewarded for your actions. Learn from the errors as well as the good of other supervisors. If you don't, it will be your mistake.