Don't Be A Disaster News Reporter

We frequently see TV reporters interviewing victims of unspeakable tragedy.  Inevitably, the reporter will ask the victim how they feel about the situation.  What a stupid question.  Of course the victim feels terrible. It is an attempt by the reporters and the audience to pry into another person's inner thoughts for less than noble purposes.

Don't do this to your employees.

Part of the management gig is that you will occasionally have to deliver bad news to an employee.  Don't deliver an adverse decision to an employee and then ask them how they feel about it.  They feel like crap.  Do you want them to lie and pretend everything is OK, or do you want them to tell the truth and brand them as a whiner?

If you're any kind of manager, you will know how they feel.  No one delivers good news and asks how you feel about it.  "I'm giving you a 50% raise!  How do you feel about that?"

The way to mitigate these issues is to build trust and communication in advance.  Two good posts on this topic are You're Not Listening by Rands and A Good Place to Work by Ben Horowitz.

Spoiler alert: If they don’t trust you, they aren’t going to say shit.

Pairing a Horse and a Rider

The following is a guest post written by Emily Richards.

When a beginner rider is picking out their first horse, it is tempting to pick the prettiest horse with the highest level training. They think that by getting a horse that already knows it all, it will help them learn it all. 

Unfortunately, what you normally get is a lot of confusion. A horse of that level has been trained to respond to the slightest touch. When you pair that horse with a rider that is inexperienced and not aware of the affect that even their unbalanced weight can have, it can be dangerous or in the very least unproductive. 

A good match for a beginner rider would be an older horse with solid basic training. 

If you wish to have a successful relationship with your horse it is important to match the riders’ skill to the training of the horse.

I see the same pattern with pairing a coach with a sports team or a manager with a software team.  Before putting a manager in charge of any group, make sure there is a good fit.

High Labor Costs Signal a Deeper Problem for a Business

If you think the compensation of your employees is too high, this means that you do not think you are getting enough value for your money.  This indicates serious problems for the business.  Possible root causes include:

• You are a bad manager and are preventing your employees from delivering sufficient value
• You made a bad strategic choice and painted yourself into a corner where there are not enough people in the workforce available for what you need
• This could be a choice of technology, location, industry, ...
• The market has changed and the value of the employees' work has declined, even though the employees continue to perform well

Regardless of the cause, this feeling indicates that significant changes are required.  Left unchecked, your resentment will be perceived by your employees and create more negative consequences.