A knowledge-sharing story is one where the speaker shares knowledge from their prior experience to an audience. According to Denning (2011) when we tell an experience based story we included some detail of the actual event, embellish other parts with fictional details and actually leave out most of the experience altogether. This is my knowledge-sharing story.
At one point when I worked for the airline, we changed computer systems, and even though we had all gone through training the cutover was a nightmare. The system was not running properly, people were not sure how to do the simplest of tasks and the managers were not properly trained to help the agents with issues. I was on maternity leave during the cutover process, thankfully, but I found myself in a situation where I needed to step in and help an agent. I was flying home from another station when I noticed a gate agent struggling to work the computer system, I watched for about ten minutes while she attempted to do routine transactions, had passengers yelling at her, and was alone and frustrated. It was clear she was not able to run the system at all, and her phone calls to ask for assistance were not being answered. After the ten minutes, I couldn’t stand around and watch her struggle anymore. I was dressed in street clothes, but I took out my badge and offered to help her with the system. She gladly accepted and we went to work. I fixed the issues she was having and then continued to help as we worked our way through the boarding process. The entire time I was helping her not one agent or supervisor approached her to help. This was a sad day for our airline. I then assigned myself a seat and boarded the plane, but not before printing the necessary paperwork she needed to close the flight. All of this could have been avoided with proper training and support from above.
This story would be a great training tool on how not to make a major change to a company without being 100 percent sure that there are enough resources to cover any or all of the issues that might arise. Managers will often find themselves in difficult situations, it’s how they choose to deal with that situation can earn them the distinction of a great manager. Whetten and Cameron (2011) provide a model of problem-solving that involves the following: define the problem, generate solutions, evaluate and select a solution, and then implement and follow up on the solution. As a manager, you aren’t always going to make the best or most popular decisions especially when faced with a dilemma, but I feel that if that manager offers to follow up and feedback then most employees will feel heard and in turn trust that manager in crisis. The employees may not agree with the decisions made, but they will have grown to have an amount of respect for that manager to follow without question.
Supportive leadership as described by Yukl (2013) includes behaviors such as consideration, acceptance, and concerns for the needs and feelings of others. It is these qualities that help create interpersonal relationships. In my story, this component is lacking. While the company as a whole may be to blame for the lack of training given to both the agents and the supervisors, however, it is the supervisor’s role to support their agents even if they are not able to run the computer system. If a supervisor had just been at the boarding podium to help answer passengers questions or to offer moral support to the agent then things may not have gotten so out of hand. I believe it is acceptable as a manager to let your employees know you may not have the answer, but that you will find it somehow. I had a supervisor who always did exactly that if he did not know the answer he would acknowledge that and either steer me to the person who would have it or tell me he would look into it and let me know. He would also send me emails updating his progress to show that he had not forgotten and that he was actively searching. To this day, he was one of my favorite managers and I learned a lot by watching him, it is no surprise that he is now the general manager of a different station.
We can all learn a lot from each other, and we need to understand and accept that it is acceptable to admit we don’t have the answers to the questions ask. The only things that would be unacceptable would be to not offer to find the answer. A manager’s best ally just might be his employee.
Denning, S. (2011). The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and
Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons/Jossey-Bass
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Management Skills (E. Svendsen
Ed. 8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Yukl, G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment