Working with people at times will bring forth challenges. Tonight, was our men’s meeting week of my Team (small group). One of the guys told me something very wise that he uses in management. Usually when a people problem arises it can be broken down to one of two categories.
Training/Skill. Some problems are because people don’t have the skill set needed to execute whatever it is they are assigned to do. In that case you must ramp up training and communication to see if their skill set can be brought up to the quality level of the task required. Sometimes it can and sometimes it cannot.
Compliance. A much bigger issue. In this case the person possesses the necessary skill set, but the just won’t execute according to protocol and standards. Why? They might not see something as vital and important (communicating along proper channels, learning their stuff, hitting cues, etc.) and so they assume–the root of all conflict–that it won’t matter if they don’t execute it well (we call it a level 1 compliant problem). Another reason for a compliance problem is that the party doesn’t agree with the system, methods and standards, and they either don’t care or don’t know how to communicate it well, so they take it upon themselves to remedy the problem on their own accord (Level 2). The worst manifestation is a “cut your feet out from you” compliance problem where someone has a personal issue with you and your leadership and they attempt to intentionally sabotage leadership (Level 3).
