Wow what a blissful, well I thought it was, couple of evenings I have had. I had no reception on my TV due to an electrical fault. However for my wife it was a different matter she was most annoyed she couldn’t get her usual dose of Eastenders, Coronation Street and it meant she had to talk to me over dinner.
Its not until you don’t have something do you truly realise what its like good, bad or indifferent. So I said to my wife what do you notice and she replied “we are talking like we were courting”. To which I responded so you think my Blackberry is my mistress!
So we made a pact that from now on when we are having dinner we will not have the tv on and we will use it as an opportunity to talk about our days rather than it being a 5mins activity when one of us walks through the door.
So my point is this, in our workplace we have a number of distractions through the day-the equivalent of the TV-and therefore talking to one of our team always gets put to the bottom of the list and then becomes a 2 minute activity when they are on the way out. The conversation will go something like this
Manager:“Have a great evening, you up to much?”
Team member:“Well as it happens we have a 5 a side quarter final tonight”
Then you suddenly realise for a split second you really don’t know that much about one of your team and now it becomes a rushed conversation and the person you are talking to needs to rush off.
To all you managers out there when you walk in tomorrow morning go around each person in the team ask them how their evening was and what they got up to?
Don’t be satisfied with “watching TV” ask them what did they watch and start to take an interest, like you are on your first date. You know what it was like, ask lots of questions, taking an interest and all that stuff.
Anyway give it a go see the difference it will make, but remember this is not a one off interaction, taking an interest-is what makes a great manager!
Thanks
Dilesh
A greater understanding of your fellow employees is soooo important, not just from a social/team building perspective but also from a professional perspective.
Lets say you have a problem you can’t solve. Do you know who to go to in your company to help?
Enlightened companies have staff yellow pages (like an internal LinkedIn) so it’s easy to find expertise within their company. Far too many don’t have such capabilities however, so you’re left isolated almost, unaware of both what other people are doing (and therefore how you can help them) and how others can help you.
In difficult times like this you have to make use of each and every employee. Is your company doing that?