Empowering philosophy and real dialogue you can adapt to your particular situation. The way he puts things will make you laugh out loud when you read it, but it's exactly the right thing to say. This book really helps take the pressure off the messenger (the boss) and put the responsibility back on the person who needs to change.
Falcone takes readers through difficult situations that can arise in the workplace and provides useful tips for communicating effectively with employees. We find that for effective conversations the strategy for approaching these situations should differ based on the personality type of the employee, but "101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees" is still a helpful foundation for engaging in difficult conversations.
This is a must have book for any beginner or seasoned manager, director, executive. Sometimes you do not always know how to put the right words together that are legally sound and that deliver the appropriate message without making your employee feel uncomfortable. This book has TONS of examples to get you through even the most awkward of situations.
The author describes what a manager should say to a newly promoted first-time supervisor. According to the author, the manager should critique the employee's attire and explain that she is now expected to dress like a professional. (Wouldn't it have been enough to explain the dress code for management personnel and skip the personal attack?) Next, the manager should criticizes the employee's choice of workplace friends and suggests she abandon her former friendships and make new "higher-level friends", although the manager claims he is not dictating who the employee's friends should be; he's just offering his kindly advice. Finally, the manager tells the employee that he needs her to be a leader, but makes sure she understands that she is not permitted to make any decisions without his prior approval. In effect, the author recommends breaking in a new first-time supervisor by using humiliation and micromanagement to preserve the corporate power structure.
When the author addresses employee absenteeism, his solution is to lecture the employee about how allotted sick days are not to be used as extra vacation days and that the employee shouldn't use a sick day on a Monday or Friday because it gives the appearance they are taking advantage of company policy just to get long weekends. So this is what good managers do? They harass employees about using the sick time the company gives them?
When insubordination is addressed, the author gives an example of a meeting with an outburst by a team member accusing the manager of being incompetent. He suggests the manager immediately stop the meeting and then, to get the employee's reason for the outburst, set up a closed three-way meeting between the manager, an HR rep. and the employee. (This is purportedly done in the interest of fairness with the HR rep. being a mediator, but is more likely seen by the employee as an inquisition.) The employee should then be sent home and informed by a phone call from HR that they have been fired for gross insubordination. What a wasted opportunity for feedback from the team. If this is an illogical person who is prone to conflict for no apparent reason, then this would come out in a team discussion of the issues. But more than likely, there are suppressed issues in this team and it's best to bring them to the surface in front of everyone. After all, perhaps you are an incompetent manager.
This book gives advice for maintaining the corporate status quo that has already caused so much damage to our society. To further improve your management skills and your company, I'd recommend reading The Great Game of Business or Open Book Management.
