Avoid telling people they are wrong, even when they are. People know they are wrong, so it is important not to make them feel like an idiot. As a leader, think of the situation from their perspective and try to find out if there is anything going on with their personal life that is causing a distraction or lack of focus so that you can understand the situation and make them see the reasoning
TRUTH be told, I was very bad at teaching or training people. Not because I don’t want to, I love to teach but can’t understand why it takes some people a very long time to comprehend.
My strategy has always been to repeat myself and explain “why” we have to follow a process when dealing with people and I get to the breaking point when I realize it is either the people I am dealing with are intentional with their ways or attitude to responsibilities at work or just nonchalant. The height of it is that these types of people are unhappy that you are complaining and not showing enough understanding even when it is obvious that you are breaking a back to get the work going while they are lounging.
The first and most important thing to me when I get a brief is quality delivery, next is the timeline because no matter how good your work is, if delivered late you may not help your client meet the necessary objectives. Although some briefs come in late and there is back-and-forth in agreeing to the strategy or mode of execution, we still can’t afford to drop the balls.
However, in situations where there is a team member who keeps making the same mistake and assumes that an apology is enough to right the wrong, even when an account is on the line, I put an end to the charade. This was the case with the digital manager who resigned.
It started with her forgetting to brief the client’s request to the team, to not checking or vetting the social media calendars sent to her by the team reporting to her before sending it to me or the client. There were too many errors that became constant and were infuriating the client.
My belief is that when you do something wrong the first time, it is an error. If you repeat it a second time, it could be an oversight. But a third time is intentional. You have to not care about the repercussions of your action or that you are totally incompetent to repeat the same mistake three times.
In this case, it was every day, and speaking out about it got me tagged as a bad leader.
I am sure you are wondering how I spoke about it. Your guess is right. I lost my cool and became confrontational in the presence of the whole team. But to be fair, I had several private and sometimes sisterly conversations with her about the need to up her game and lead by example.
Would I do it differently now? Yes.
Avoid telling people they are wrong, even when they are. People know they are wrong, so it is important not to make them feel like an idiot. As a leader, think of the situation from their perspective and try to find out if there is anything going on with their personal life that is causing a distraction or lack of focus so that you can understand the situation and make them see the reasoning.
I am not saying you should accept or accommodate incompetence, or that you should call an apple an orange, but have an understanding and reflective approach rather than being combative and confrontational.
As Richard Templar said, “be assertive and conciliatory at the same time”.
If you don’t want your team to passively resist you, don’t sound aggressive and try not to make anger reflect in your words, otherwise, that is what they hold on to.
Refine it until it is kind. When angry, pissed off, or disappointed, don’t say the first thing that comes to your mind.
- Olateju Ogunyomi is a Marcoms professional and behavioral analyst. She left Ogilvy Nigeria in 2020 to start her own agency. She is an APCON member, was a member of the AAAN Women in Advertising Committee, and the AAAN Event Committee. She is a member of the Project Management Institute and the UK chapter, was the Business Development Director for Aspora Nigeria Limited, an integrated Communications, Strategy, and Consultancy agency she co-founded, and is currently the Brand Director/SBU lead at First Katalyst Marketing.
