Story about communication: When a manager acts before he thinks
One day the manager of a large company noticed a new employee at the office headquarters and gave instructions to his secretary to tell him the new employee needs to come into his office. When the new guy came into the managers’ office the manager told him to sit while he was pretending to read some documents.
After a few minutes, he asked the new guy with a very serious tone “What’s your name?”
“John,” the new guy answered and smiled back.
The manager scowled, “Look, I don’t know what kind of place you worked before, but I don’t call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority. I refer to my employees by their last name only. You see that’s Smith, there is Jones, and next to him is Baker,” said the manager as he pointed out of his office to some coworkers. ” And I am to be referred to only as Mr. Robertson. Do you understand?”
As the new man nodded, the manager continued with an even more serious expression on his face which demanded the respect of his authority, “Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?”
The new guy sighed, “Darling. My name is John Darling, Mr. Robertson. I’m sorry I did not mean any disrespect.” John felt bad as he was sure he has made a bad first impression.
The manager looked back at his documents for a moment, and then said, “OK, John, the next thing I want to tell you is…”
From that day on the manager started calling everyone by their first name.
Moral of the story:
- We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Ask and listen, before you decide and speak.
- A person in a leadership position sets the tone for the team's culture. So it is very important how he communicates with his team as that gets projected throughout the team and in a short time becomes a decisive factor if the culture of the team is healthy or toxic.
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