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The 10 Worst Employee Failures
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Kevin Dwyer
Is a pragmatic change management advisor and founder of Change Factory. He comes from an old school that experienced and led change first and learned the theory later. Kevin has since managed small companies as CEO, founding Change Factory in 2004.
Change Factory’s mission is to help organizations that do not like their business outcomes get better business outcomes through changing people’s behavior. The Change Factory view of what is generally missing in sales development can be summed up by the phrase “Training is not enough”. Visit Kevin’s website: www.changefactory.com.au
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Kevin Dwyer
I often write articles critical or at least challenging of management of organisations. But of course, it is not only managers who behave in such a way as to cause problems. Often it is me, the subordinate employee.
Here are my top ten failures I observe of employees, like us.
1. Continuing in a Job I Dislike
I stay in a job which does not suit me. I always ask myself, “What am I good at?” and, “What do I enjoy?”, but I do nothing about the answers.
I do not seek and secure a job that has at least some of the elements of the answers. I miss the opportunity to shine in a job that I will enjoy and thereby advance my career and remuneration.
2. Never Asking Questions
The boss asks me to do something. I leave their office not understanding what they really wanted. Or I leave the office thinking I know exactly what they wanted. In either case I did not ask a clarifying question.
What is the end result? The majority of times I deliver something back which requires a major revision or is completely off track. The reason I did not ask questions in the first place is some misplaced view about how competent I might be seen if I ask clarifying questions.
Returning time and again with work which requires revision, leaves people in no doubt about my competence.
3. Never Saying, “I don’t know.”
Pride or fear stop me from saying to the boss, “I don’t know” to a question which requires a factual answer. I either make a best guess or I pick an answer I have a vague recollection of from another conversation I had with another colleague.
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out”, is an answer I find difficult to say; even though coming back within a short time with a more considered answer saves time and rework.
4. Always Managing Upwards
I am so inured to concentrating on my career and not wanting to upset my powerful boss that I continually manage upwards. I make sure that the get no bad news. I even go to the level of burying bad numbers in a sea of detail. Or I am economical with my definition of some variables I need to report on so that they appear better than they are.
I do this to the detriment of the business; because the boss does not want to hear bad news, or so I have convinced myself.
5. Saying, “We can’t because…”
I respond to a presentation on a programme involving change with a sentence commencing with,“We can’t because…” I am being incredibly lazy. What I need to do is ask a clarifying question to be sure I heard right and then say, “We can if…”
