RE: 'Step Up to Leader' Post > Tangential Question

["Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

If they outright refuse, ask why. If the reason is something like "I don't
want to" or "I think it's a stupid idea" explain that this wasn't optional.
If they continue to say no or ignore your reasonable requests, start keeping
track of them and then let the person go. I really don't care if the reasons
make sense to them. 3 year olds do stuff because it makes sense to them.

Passive-aggressive behavior is impossible. I've been married to it AND
managed people with it. It's a losing game either way. They are way better
at doing it than you will ever be at managing it.

sharon

Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On
Behalf Of Sandy Harris
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2007 9:59 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: 'Step Up to Leader' Post > Tangential Question


On 9/12/07, Agnes Starr <zigrocstarr -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

> What do you do if you ask an employee to do something and they refuse to
do it?
> Suppose for example you request an item via email and the subordinate
shoots
> back and email that says "No, I am not going to do it that way. " ...

Step one is to find out why. Does the email give reasons? If not, talk
to them or
ask in email.

They might have good reasons for what they are doing, or at least reasons
that
make sense to them. They might even be right. Until you know the reasons,
you cannot know what to do.

I've had more than one boss request things that seemed dumb to me, things
that I did not want to waste time on. Often I'll humour them and just do it.
If
not I'll usually "just say no" thinking the problem is obvious enough even
the
boss should see it. If you don't see it, ask me.

> Or you make requests and they continually ignore them, and you know they
are
> doing it intentionally to be defiant.

How do you know? I sometimes ignore requests I think are dumb. Would you
see that as me deliberately trying to be defiant?

--
Sandy Harris,
Nanjing, China

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