doug smith training

  Sometimes a manager, with every good intention, will skip around the supervisor who reports to them and provide direction to a team member. The supervisor is cut out of the equation.  It's fast. It sometimes works. It always has side-effects. The main side-effect is that the next time that same team member has an issue or a problem, they will go around their supervisor and directly to the manager. Before you know it, the manager is supervising the employee and the supervisor is cut out. That's not what you want. That's not what the supervisor wants. And, that's not good for your team. I know that in today's world there are fewer levels of leadership. It makes sense that people should be able to talk, at any time, to anyone in the organization. Keep your doors open -- just remember, you probably don't want a parade of people two levels down marching thru. -- doug smith

Companies sometimes post their espoused values. Do they really live by them? It depends on the company. It's worth asking questions, with curiosity, to see if they really do live by those values. Questions like: what does integrity mean to you? how do you create an environment of development and support? how do you make sure that equal opportunity is an active part of your culture? how do you balance competition and cooperation in your company? can you give me an example of a time when your organization was tempted to do something that would have been good for profit but bad for people? what did you do? Values sound great. Values sound uplifting and noble. It is important to make sure that they are real. The problem with shared values is that they are so rarely shared. Check to be sure. -- doug smith