Listening to Complaints

How do you feel about complaints?

Successful supervisors often discover that since they've developed the ability to truly listen to people, that people take that opportunity to complain. Why not? Think about how few people truly listen to us. Once you feel heard, it is wonderful.

But listening to one complaint after another can be tough. It can even be counter-productive. For me, I often drift out of my carefully practiced listening and into wondering when is this person going to DO something about it?

So why wonder into it -- go full speed ahead. Redirect. Refocus. Reframe. Sometimes all you need to do is listen and let a person vent, but more often than that a more effective strategy is to prod them into moving. Stir their passion into action. Encourage them to either do something about the issue they are complaining about or simply drop it. If it is truly out of their control or influence, maybe dropping it is their best option. But, if they CAN do something or influence someone regarding their complaint then the time to do that is now.

Keep in mind that maybe YOU are that person they are seeking to influence. Then you get to choose.

Your job is not to listen to complaints. Ask the complainer to collaborate on a solution.

It will show how much either of you care about the issue, and how much either of you can do about it.

Who knows? Maybe the two of you will make dramatic improvements in something.

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Comments

New Ideas

New ideas won't break you but they can make you bigger. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership Combination

We can rationalize anything without making it justified. Leaders should always ask: who is this good for other than me? High performance leadership does NOT mean performance at any cost. It means performance that serves a noble cause while also benefiting people. High performance leadership is a combination. Results without relationships are shallow and temporary. Take care of both, and you'll be a high performance leader. -- doug smith

What You Need

Use what you've learned to become what you need. -- doug smith

For example

Get good at something that won't obsolete itself. For example: emotional intelligence creating great conversations encouraging people leadership What would you add to the list? Which ones are you developing? -- doug smith

Decide

What do you want? Are you getting what you want? Intention is direction. Decide. And, then go. -- doug smith

Your Reputation

More authority means higher levels of responsibility. More power requires more service to others, not less. What you do with your power is who you will be known as. Also, how you use the power you have creates who people will remember you as. How do you want to be remembered? -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

Measures Matter

Some people measure quantify first and quality later. Some people measure money first and impact to the team later (not even second!). How you measure productivity might determine your character and your reputation. Put people first. -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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