Accomplishment & Accountability 1

[Skittle]

If I were in charge of an IT dept I would try the following.

Treat everybody the same way ( no special privilages ), encourage skill development with rewards and make sure all successes are rewarded while failures are given a genuine, friendly and constructive talk through.




Dazed and confused

 

[KenCunningham]

...and on Planet Skittle it would be sunny all the time with no nasty bitey things to make you sad.

Seriously - good ideals, I take it your current place isn't quite this paragon of virtue?

 

[johnherman]

Also, remember that praise is served well in public, but criticism is best served in private.

I remember giving a VP boss of mine a good talking to when he jumped around me (I was a Director at the time) to criticize one of my staff in a departmental meeting. It took me weeks of coaching to bring that staff member back into the fold to where he was a productive team member again.

-------------------------
The trouble with doing something right the first time is that noboby appreciates how difficult it was.
- Steven Wright

 

[willir]

And when "we" make a mistake, is it good character and leadership to admit to the mistake, learn from it and move on??

 

[columb]

From my experience part of a great team is that, whatever the joshing within the team, as far as the rest of the world is concerned the team made the mistake, not one individual. When the beer is flowing on a curry night we'll still take the rip out of Andy for debiting all out customers twice, from Steve for deleting /etc/passwd, from me for... that's another story. When the customer phones the team made the mistake and whomever answers the call takes the blame.

Columb Healy
Living with a seeker after the truth is infinitely preferable to living with one who thinks they've found it.

 

[DoubleD]

Star for Columb!
That is exactly what makes a team great. Leaders should also take this advice to heart. If you're team is accused of a mistake, it is first and foremost your fault as their leader. Stand by your team's decisions and actions. Discuss the issue with your team privately after the fact, but never berate or degrade them in front of others.

Pain is stress leaving the body.

DoubleD

 

[Onyxpurr]

Since we're on the topic of mistakes, my workplace has a great culture for this.

Normally, in previous businesses I've worked at, first thing they do is try to place blame.

Here, they say, "Okay, we messed that one up. Now how can we fix it? And how can we prevent it from happening again?" End of discussion.

My boss is great at not treating me like an amoeba for making a mistake. Therefore I have no qualms owning up to them, communicating them, and fixing them immediately.

 

[DoubleD]

Onyxpurr,
Make sure you let your boss know you appreciate the way you are treated. Just as management has a tendency to take for granted the good work done by associates, associates tend to assume management realizes when they are doing a good job. "Give praise where praise is do!"

Pain is stress leaving the body.

DoubleD

 

[Onyxpurr]

Thanks DoubleD. I definately tell my boss what I appreciate about her.

For example, when she says something will happen, it happens. When she mentioned they were trying to create a position for me, bingo! It happened. And I conveyed my appreciation of that.