So, gathering for a quick meeting this week at work and it's introduced by a senior member of management; as I'm waiting for the meeting to start a fellow teammate tells me that the same person that's introducing the meeting told him this about an hour earlier...
My co-worker was helping out his team by unloading some totes from a supply elevator in our building. I'm not just talking about a few totes, no, A LOT of them. Our senior manager comes by and says "Why are you doing a level one's job? That's why we have floor workers for; loading and unloading totes on an elevator is NOT your job"
Now this is the same exact person that tells us as managers to never say the words "That's not my job" Matter of fact, that's sort of a badge of honor that our company uses. We are NEVER supposed to say "That's not my job" Interesting, right?
So the meeting is rolling right along and is set for 30 minutes. The presenter does a fair job of making all of his points to us so that we can action our "homework" after the meeting is complete. In the midst of all this, the presenter is getting interrupted by the same senior manager injecting his two cents here and there. As we think the meeting is coming to a close, we see our senior senior leader grab the microphone and say "Ok, well... we have 17 minutes left. We can either talk about what was just discussed or I can monologue for the last 17 minutes"
What do you think happened? Yep, you guessed it. Our senior leader took the mic once more and "monologued" for the last 17 minutes of the meeting. We know those who love to hear the sound of their own voices right?
So, as a leader never say "That's not my job." it gives an us v. them mentality to the rest of your organization and especially to front line employees that we always want to build trust with and let them know that no matter how the day is shaping up, they can always count on us!
Lastly, train to standard and not to time. If the substance of a meeting was met, give the extra time back to your staff/team; they are all busy too and having extra time added back into your day is appreciative on all fronts!
