Thursday 6 September 2007

I am the Lame Duck Leader now


So, I am being labeled the lame duck leader now. This is the first time I heard this phrase. :).

It is perfectly fine to understand , but if you are being called one right up to your face (in my case, is yahoo messenger) , I guessed it hurt even a little. But not bad, at least I learned something new today.

Adding salt to injury, some of the things I was doing at the past is "meaningless" now. So, there is "no point continuing doing". Again, I can perfectly understand this also, but it again hurts to really heard them.

Let's say you have a really stupid subordinate. If u call him "stupid" or "not clever" or "intelligence-challenged" or "academically challenged" or "slow to understand" or just simply "worthless", I guess it will mean the same for him. It still hurts.

The best way to get your message across? I am not a master in this also. But, I do know when we give feedback, we focus on specific behavioral change. Being stupid is NOT the behavior. Not being able to understand the requirements is the behavior, for example . And the objective will be to get the person to understand the requirements.

So, instead of saying you are stupid, just tell your subordinate this - "You do not seem to understand the requirements which is critical to the success of the project, anything you can do differently?"
Offer to help also, if needed.

So, if you have the impulsive nature to call people "stupid", "not hardworking", or even "lame-duck", please think twice.

I prefer being called a cute duck if it is necessary for me to be a duck. :)


Blogging during lunch again.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm one of those who do not think that you're a lame duck leader, so for us, yep, you're a cute duck ^^

Anonymous said...

...and I agree (though I used to do that in the past and I still tend to do that sometimes) that you don't call a person stupid, especially right in front of the face... I've come to realize a good leader sets good examples to follow and is able to motivate staff in a encouraging way.

I heard from a radio parenting programme also about this, it mentions that in order to correct a child, concentrate on the act itself NOT on the child's characteristic. E.g. if he didn't do his homework, don't label him off as lazy, rather, try to really understand why he didn't do it and solve the problem with him. Something like that, hehe.. =D

Unknown said...

Thanks for supporting the cute duck, autumnmusic.

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