Managing others

I don't really have a lot of time to post, things are really crazy at work... we've bought several large packages, and have two companies who are new to this whole process who need to have their hands held as we get them acclimated and we have a staff shortage as well... needless to say, I'm going pretty crazy trying to keep all of the balls in the air that I'm supposed to be monitoring. Of course, part of the craziness is that my 3 month old daughter is really enjoying interacting and playing so much more and I really don't want to be a bad mommy and put work before my daughter... ug. I HATE that I have to struggle to keep my priorities straight. BUT, this post isn't about how wrong it is that American corporate culture treat moms so badly, this is about an insight that I have re: managing others.

As a manager, it doesn't need to be, and shouldn't be about whether you are right or not. If you need something to get done, and your employee states that she thinks its already been done, you go over it with her, and then apologize for having her duplicate her efforts. What you DON'T do is tell her that you'd changed the file the night before (when you hadn't) and that SHE was the one who had done the project wrong based on the out-of-date spreadsheet. And if you DO mention that she was wrong, when she protests that she JUST pulled the file and looked at it and all the data matched her project, you don't argue with her about how wrong she is and how right you are. You apologize for the error and you ask her nicely to please update. Instead of wasting precious time AND leaving your employee with a bad taste in her mouth, you've got what you needed and she's thinking you're great for admitting your fault.

Unfortunately, this basic management principle isn't apparent to all managers. Sad.