My employee resigned.
I just started as a manager in a new company and this was a shock to me.
I asked why.
He said he feels stifled, unappreciated, without a career path, and most of all, has been taking tasks that nobody else was willing to take.
I looked deeper, his previous manager took all the interesting work, and let routine tasks to be dealt by his employees. But then his best people started to quit, and at some point, he stopped being effective. So he left too.
This employee was one the last of the best people remaining.
The best people always suffer the worst from bad leadership.
It took me an enormous effort to convince him to give me a chance.
It was even harder effort to rebuild the team and to earn their trust.
To manage smart people, you do NOT need to be smarter than they are.
You need to give them a chance to grow, opportunities to shine, and appreciation.
Great quote by Gary Vaynerchuk:
"A great leader is a great listener. A great manager is a great mentor. I empower my employees to think they can win!"
I myself resigned once.
A new boss arrived and told us he will have an 8:30am meeting every day. He wanted to show the CEO how hard driving he is. There was no other reason to have that daily meeting.
I came to him and said that I put my daughter on the school bus every am and can't he please move the meeting to 9am
His response was - don't your kids have a mother ?
That response sealed it for me.
I gave him my notice before I had another job lined up.
Do you agree that stupid rules kill morale ?
Originally Published on LinkedIn