Advice on forgetfulness
Hello,
My first post here is for some advice.
In my current role I have summer staff of a high range of backgrounds and, for lack of a better term, trustworthiness. It is new for me to have such a large range of people I am partially responsible for. Now my problem I need some advice on is the following:
Our summer staff are given a wide range of site duties ranging from opening/closing; public safety; guiding; minor maintenance, etc. It can be quite a bit to take in all at once, and we respect that. The problem we are having is with one student which is seriously making it hard to trust him. He will say he is gong to do something and then it does not get done. For example, in locking the site up, he has twice said he as locked the last gate to be closed on the site, yet when checked he will have locked the lock, but rather than having put the chain through the gate and fence, he locked the lock to the fence and left the chain hanging on the fence. It seems like very bad absent-mindedness. Myself and other staff have spoken to him about paying attention to what he does. This has not helped and I am short on ideas on how to address this. Any ideas?
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advice on forgetfulness
1) do "an official talk with him". Go through his duties. 2) Write them down on a piece of paper and the conclusions you two do together. 3) Let him sign it. 4) In the piece of paper you must put in that the engagement with the firm will be terminated if this happens once more. 5) On the piece of paper see to that the previous registered "offences" are  written down with day, date, time and som on. 6) If this does not work, terminate the engagement the same/next day.
 Dont be sloppy with registering who,where,when etc beeing a leader !
Personal responsibility
The problem isn't one of absent-mindedness it is a lack of personal responsibility.Â
Some good advice in the previous reply about restating the requirements and explaining the consequences.  I would also be very specific about the potential outcome of this individual not doing his job.  I assume if in the example given the site isn't secured this is then open to vandals etc.  Â
One of the tools I have used is to set up a check list and have the individual tick off every task completed.   Â
Kate
is it really forgetfulness?
Coli,
what did you specifically talk to the guy about? was it about how everybody wasn't happy with his work? or, was is it how everybody relied on him and he had let everybody down? if you were talking about "everybody" he may have got the feeling that the complain was just general reminder. how actually was the gyu trained in the position? was he just told what he needs to do? did somebody showed him what "lock the gate" means? i know that this may sound supid - everybody must know what "to lock the gate" means. but this assumption can be deceptive. Don't assume and double check if the guy understands what he is supposed to do.
As was said before - give him a list of tasks, explain him personally what every task means and covers, get him confirmed he understands and get it signed.
is there possibly some record available? maybe the camera monitors the gate? such you can also show him direct evidence that he didn't do the job.Â
also, is it possible to get some refferences from his previous contacts; did you mention that the guy is student? you may get in touch with his teachers - would they tell you the same - unresponsible, forgetful, "dreamer" ... ?
 Kat
real cause..
I'd go looking for the real cause here. In particular is it ability or motivation? Very different with very different approach. It could be that the guy's just got a bad memory.
If it's ability, find his strengths and give him something that plays to those strengths. If it's motivation, start by looking inside -- are you the cause of demotivation? What can you do so he would want to please you? Trust starts with the leader.
Best of luck!
Dave
IQ and EQ
Some very sensible managerial advice in response to the original post, all directed at doing things right and, if implemented, will certainly provide a solution that will protect the business and all concerned. Davids comments, on the other hand, lean in another direction, towards causes and effects. It brings to mind the Warren Bennis quote "Managers do things right, leaders do the right thing" . IQ or EQ ? (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/warrengbe385287.html)
On the surface of it this one appears to be a difficult call, go the managerial route and do things right and perhaps a hidden treasure may get released from the organisation. Go the EQ route and run the risk of exposing the team and the business to avoidable risk. I had a chap like this once, we could not get him to engage or be motivated, he seemed to forget everything that we told him. In the end it turned out that he didnt have enough to stimulate him and he didnt give a hoot whether he stayed or left. A thorough appraisal with some objectives that extended his engagement woke him up in the end. He is still in the industry, today, as a successful and accomplished clinical technician. He made a lousy porter though.
On the whole I dont know if I make these type of decisions in any better fashion these days but I do know that I have benefitted from developing an intuition that leads to some courage to turn the lens around. Thanks David
Hello again, and thanks for
Hello again, and thanks for all the advice.
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Here is an update on how things are going:
He has been spoken to by "management". Â In essence the importance of the gates being locked properly was explained to him and he was told that should another incident occur he will get a written warning (which would be like the one suggested).Â
It was then left to me to review his duties with him and ensure he understood them. Â To which I went with him while he performed his duties to observe if he had issues (he had already had areas where he had difficulty gone over with him while I was off). Â This did allow me to uncover a little more and identify things that would keep him motivated. Â For one, the week he was making mistakes was the first week he stopped smoking, which he said was affecting his focus. I tend to be trusting, so I am willing to accept that for now and move forward. Â He did what I would call "fairly well" on his site close down today. Â To help him make sure he covers everything I asked him to carry the closing checklist with him rather than completing it when done (he had previously ticked off doing everything when it was not done correctly).
 The positive thing for him is our visitors really like him and he is very interested in the history he is presenting (his job title is interpretive guide).  He gets great feedback from the guests and when he hears it he is genuinely proud and inspired.  This is good since we know he likes coming into work and wants to be here.  I have for the past week been working hard to build the summer staff into a team and working to get them to understand the importance of everything they do on the site (everybody wants to do the "fun stuff".  Things start to click for them when it is explained that the "entire guest experience" is everything on site and that they are responsible for that experience. Â
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The big thing for this fellow is dealing with his "feelings of persecution". Â He doesn't really believe he makes the mistakes so he is acting a little like he is afraid he will be blamed for other people's mistakes. Â We have already explained to him that if something is done incorrectly where we don't know who was responsible we would not just accuse someone.Â
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