'Step Up to Leader' Post > Tangential Question

[Lauren]

> Behalf Of Agnes Starr

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

Is this a "how" or "what" issue?  You imply that the issue is about the
task, but the employee response that you give mentions "that" way.  Does the
employee have another way of doing the task?  

On my current project there are non-DBA end-users that are trying to tell IT
how to build a database.  One end-user in particular tries to micro-manage
development projects but she is not involved in development.  IT does tell
that they will not things her way, but the projects do get done without her
"technical" support.

Sometimes a good response to a comment about how something should be done is
to ask the employee how they plan to complete the task.  It isn't defiant
for an employee to require latitude to complete his or her own job.

Lauren