Posted on by warren

Ever Have One of Those Meetings?

I was in an important meeting and the project team pretty much knew that a certain person wasn’t carrying their weight. This person wasn’t a complete let down…but could do more. During the course of our project meeting an issue was raised as to why a task had not been completed. This person became defensive and started pointing fingers and making excuses. I lost it. A normally mild manner person, I let him have it. I gave him the what for and how come. However, I was out of line and spent hours in one on one meetings apologizing to this person and the rest of the team. There is a time to kick someone in the pants and a way to do it. My way that day was wrong. It costs our team more time in apologizing then this person not completing their task. The bottom line is we have to play the game with the team that we have. There isn’t always time to replace someone and many times there isn’t anyone else available…period. My advice…if you aren’t getting the job done, own it and move on. People respect that more than excuses. Secondly, be slow to speak or you may make a situation worse. I know, because I did

2 Replies to “Ever Have One of Those Meetings?”

  1. Even though you may have blown a gasket, that person is probably doing some soul searching of their own and will come back a stronger team member. At least for the near-term. Don’t sweat it. 🙂

  2. I recommend (2) things. As newshirt said; don’t sweat it in the short term; learn from it and apply it to the future. Secondly; when you see a person isn’t carrying their weight; “privately” follow up with them and ascertain why. I’ve learned on more than one occasion; when I thought I saw something in another; it wasn’t remotely close to what I thought; when I thought irrresponsible or negligent; it actually was a personal issue which had their attention and when given some grace and mercy in the work place; they came around stronger … just knowing someone cared. So the moral of the story; Praise – publicaly; anything constructive – in private; also good news always on Friday’s … challenging news on Monday’s; gives someone the weekend to “bask” in good news and bad news for them to come to you to discuss further on Tuesday … God bless; Cheers

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