TomLaForce.com

Dear manager,

Here’s a little secret I want to let you in on…just between us.  When you hire me to do a workshop so that your employees get along better with each other, they almost always ask me this question.  “Do the managers have to attend one of these workshops?”

They don’t usually fill me in on all the background that has led them to ask the question (although sometimes they do), but it’s obvious that some of the participants think their managers are not walking the talk.  Now I’m not in any position to know if that’s true or not, but I can report that the perception of managers pulling the old “Do as I say, not as I do” act does not make it any easier for me to convince employees that they ought to treat each other with more respect.

So here’s my bit of advice.  Even if you’ve learned everything there is to know about delivering an “I statement,” and you are clear as a bell about the differences between passivity, assertiveness, and aggressiveness; I wouldn’t start a new training initiative without the managers attending it first.  If I can tell people that you’re learning the same skills they’re learning, they will be more open to my message.  And a little refresher is always, well, refreshing.

And one more thing…It helps if you practice what you’ve learned and even better if employees can connect the dots between what they are learning and what they see you doing.  Your modeling of the behaviors means a lot to them

All the best,

Your trainer