So even if the leader of an organization is a couch potato at home, he or she
must show otherwise in front if the employees; strong leadership qualities must
be clear and visible. Lend me your ear, no not you Hollyfield. Many people can
talk and talk till they have spoken the extent of their vocabulary, but few
individuals have true listening skills. Listening to an employees reason for a
certain attitude or behavior is the data gathering part of this science if you
will. In order to listen, a manager must be able to put aside his shotgun and
really pay attention to the praises and complaints of an employee. He or she
must also be able to retain that information. There must be good eye contact so
that a speaker will feel that the listener has interest in the material
presented. Visual confirmations of the main points of the material must be
shown; head nods, facial expressions, etc. This allows you to respond without
interrupting the speech of the speaker. Then, when it is the appropriate time,
the listener must be able to ask viable questions from the retained information.
This helps the speaker feel that the listener is not rushing the conversation,
and instead, the listener will appear more interested in solving the conflict.
(Van Mechelen, 1997) One small step for mankind There are a variety of
attitudes, and a variety of commitment levels to attitudes. Try changing a
Japanese manager’s attitude. Ever seen it done before? Yeah, I saw it in a
certain number of movies like” Mr. Baseball” or “Gung Ho”. These Japanese
attitudes in these movies are fictional, but there are attitudes out there that
come from beliefs that are as strong as, if not stronger than, the ones from
Hollywood. It should be a good manager’s job to be able to decide whether a
certain attitude will be easily changed or not. Once this is established, the
balancing of techniques and timeliness must be applied.
Attitudes cannot be changed drastically nor quickly. There is a reason why
people have attitudes; it is a part of them. To change a person takes patience
and lots and lots of skills, especially in a boss/employee relationship where it
is more formal. Sometimes, all it takes is a warning in simple words to change
an unfavorable attitude. This is most effective when it is an attitude which
developed from shallow beliefs such as hitting that snooze button one too many
times and getting to work ten minutes late almost everyday. The shallow belief
here is that getting that ten extra minutes of sleep will make the body feel
more refreshed and make it easier to get up to go to work on time or some other.
Immediate action to an attitude is also important. Employees will go to extents
of “testing” their boss. See what they could get away with. If they feel that
their employer will not take action in the near future, then it is safe to
assume that there will be some overflowing wastepaper baskets under a lot of
desks.
A manager must let an employee know right away when there is an
unfavorable attitude. It is also imperative that the problem be stated clearly
within the interests of the organization’s policy or rules. (Robbins, 1997) The
employee must feel that the manager is taking action for the sake of the
organization rather than a show of power. But here again is a situation that
requires balance.This is explained more simply by giving the example of most
people who cower at the sight of that motorcop who pulls them over and has a
sense of power. Most people will not choose to demonstrate resistance when the
cop comes up to the driver’s side window with his dark sunglasses. The cop knows
this and does things like wear extra dark sunglasses and show ice-cold
personality. Although this is not an ideal way to get an employee to play ball,
a manager still must give an impression to the employee of a balance between a
cop, a mentor, and a friend. A Scooby Snack Again, attitudes do not change
overnight and require constant monitoring. There will be some resulting steps
that are noticeable to the manager. Although these steps may not be the desired
end state attitude, they still have to be commended either verbally or with
action.Expectancy theory (Vroom) argues that an employee will be motivated to
exert higher levels of effort when he or she believes that that effort will lead
to a good performance appraisal. Along those lines, a manager would do well if
he or she gives the employee a few acknowledgements when appropriate while the
employee is in the process of changing an attitude.
