To ignore is to accept... to reward is to repeat

No one is born knowing how to be a Manager. And no other job can prepare you for this challenging assignment: where you not only have to worry about your performance, but also have to worry about how others perform. As a manager, how you treat our staff and how good a role model you project yourself is important. Far too often, today’s managers fail to recognise the impact of accepting certain behaviours from staff – leading to sending the wrong signals and flawed ‘leadership’ messages. Worst of all, when you do not correct bad or improper behaviour, you encourage such behaviour to turn into a habit. Three scenarios are presented to exemplify how leaving certain actions unresolved may have negative consequences. They beg the question: As a manager or supervisor, "what behaviors have I been accepting or discouraging by my silence?"

Scenario 1: It is raining outside. You see two uniformed bellmen, Rohan and Anil, standing outside the front door, in serious conversation, whilst the doorman is assisting a guest to the car by holding an umbrella, to prevent him getting wet. Just then, another guest walks between the two bellmen to enter the hotel. They briefly interrupt their conversation and smile at the guest before resuming their seemingly personal conversation. The guest opens the door and walks in the lobby without a word from either of the two. You do not feel it is suitable to say anything at this time and let the incident go by without a word.

Scenario 2: Walking past the hotel front desk area, the phone begins to ring and ring…four…five…six times. You notice Kumar at the reception checking in a guest and disregarding the phone. So you rush behind the counter, attend to the call and say nothing to Kumar afterwards.

Scenario 3: On the way to the Sales Manager’s office, you overhear the hotel’s sales executive, Harshini, answering an inquiry call. She listens to the caller and simply quotes rates and nothing more. She fails to qualify the lead, present a benefit statement or even ask for the sale. However, she is polite and requests the caller to phone back if he or she is interested. Harshini sees you and knows you are listening. You silently acknowledge that she is busy, so you say nothing about the improper way the call was handled and move on. After all, she was friendly.

The above are but a few everyday illustrations that set the stage for employees to develope poor habits – which escalate into mediocrity, because managers’ choose to ignore or condone improper or undesirable behaviour. The sacred message to all managers, department heads or supervisors is that “behaviour ignored is behaviour accepted. By the same token, it goes without saying that “behaviour rewarded is behaviour repeated. Managers’ must be aware that the best way to mould positive behavior is to praise desirable and exceptional behavior when one sees it. But, then again, managers’ who routinely ignore unacceptable standards of behaviour are very unlikely to praise extraordinary actions.

Presuming that your employees will realise that their behavior is wrong and that they will take measures to correct it on their own is being naïve or at worse, is taking nonsense to the next level.

Ask yourself as a manager if you ever:

• Expect employees to have a crystal ball to read your mind and know what is/is not acceptable?
• Expect people to change on their own initiative? Remember, employees who are aware of their own toxic behaviors are often able to conceal them from you (just as they did during the interview process).
• Expect them to look around and observe/learn from what everyone else is doing? Yes, they would do that – to pick up the bad habits in most instances.

Even if you are aware of improper or bad behaviour, as illustrated in the three scenarios mentioned above, ask yourself if you are:

• Unsure of your own expectations / standards.
• Too busy dealing with more urgent matters.
• Uncomfortable "confronting" the behavior directly.
• Not sure of what to say or how to say it.

If any of this applies you are best advised to seek coaching and mentoring. Managers or supervisors should not shy away from addressing staff behaviour and performance at work as often as necessary and whenever justified. Employees must not be allowed to choose at what level or manner they perform – especially if it is below standard. They must realise that they cannot escape the consequences that follow poor behaviour. Managers should expect and be able to extract acceptable behaviour and performance at work. How you approach it is the key? Is it the fair, friendly, firm method? Or is it the written warning? The former gets better results. Unfortunately, the majority of managers prefer the latter owing to skills deficiencies in handling such issues – resulting eventually in poor staff retention.

The positive thing that emerges from the above scenarios was that in all three instances, the manager followed the old MBWA (Management by Walking Around) training practice. Sadly, most of today’s managers spend a lot of time sitting at their desk, seldom wandering purposefully around the property. Do they have any idea what their staff is actually doing or are they are able to properly instruct?

The combination of lack of accountability, willingness to take ownership, failure to reinforce desired behaviours, condoning guest service slip-ups that mouth "its okay sometimes; it's not okay at other times." is a receipe for disaster. It can lead to the presence of toxic behavior for months and even years in an organization with harmful effects on morale, (especially for new recruits), performance, and the bottom line.

HSL

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