In a world that is as huge as the lovely George R. R. Martin
has created for us in his enormous book series, there are innumerable lessons
in good leadership. But for right now I only want to look at one: employee
discipline as poorly demonstrated by the hapless Ned Stark.
If you have read the books, or seen the TV show, think back
to the early days when Ned was still hanging around, being the Hand of the
King. He is set up to be a very ethical guy, the nice guy who plays fair and
who seems like he would be a good boss.
Set in opposition to him is the apparently evil Queen Cersei.
Ned discovers her children are not the biological children of her husband; and
therefore they are not really in line to be next in succession. (There is much
more to the story, if you have not yet read or watched it – so I encourage you
to do that!) He seeks advice from a political wise man or two, and promptly
disregards it all of their useful advice – deciding to just be a nice guy. He talks
to Cersei, telling her that he will give her a chance to slink away in the
night (I’m paraphrasing here) and take her children to free up the throne for
the biological next in line. Cersei, who has established herself as very interested
in the throne as well as being from a very politically astute family, is
amused. When Ned shows up to tell her to leave, she has used her advance notice
of his actions to arrange to have him arrested. He is later beheaded.
Of course, all of this is fun to read and watch; but when I was
first listening to the book, I was horrified at the very poor management decisions
Ned was making!
He did absolutely the right thing in the beginning. When you
discover an employee has done something that is very wrong in the workplace,
you want to get advice on how to handle it. (Usually the advice will not be “kill
her quickly” but something more situationally appropriate to your workplace.)
You may feel uncomfortable about disciplining the employee. Really, no manager
enjoys this part of the job. (Okay, King Joffrey springs to mind – so if this
is the manager’s mindset we can assume that is a really bad thing.) But you
have to manger up and get it done!
Plan in advance for your discussion with the employee.
Assume that the employee is not going to be happy about any level of discipline
that happens. Prepare for tears with a handy box of tissues, for threats with a
security guard standing nearby or a phone ready to dial 911, and for a storm of
angry shouting and arguing with a lack of emotional response. Have
documentation ready for the decision you have made to be carried out on the
spot. If this discipline is a termination meeting, then be ready with some
empty boxes for her to pack her things that morning, and for someone else to
wipe out the departing employee’s access to your server, catalog, and other
vital online services.
Have a witness around for any of these things. This is why
you have an HR department at your City or your school or your corporation. They
will be so much happier if you talk to them in advance about any discipline,
instead of having to clean up the mess from a disastrous meeting you decided to
have on your own.
It is a good thing to be a nice manager – everyone likes
that and it’s great. But “nice” in the context of employee discipline does not
mean getting mushy and refusing to follow some basic procedures. Instead it
means being firm and setting guidelines – then enforcing your decisions. Letting
a poor employee have you arrested and beheaded (hopefully metaphorically) is a
serious loss of control as a manger, and the sign of someone who does not know
what she is doing. Instead be smart, be tough, and be fair to everyone involved
– organization, other employees – and use effective employee discipline.
Now, go study these important management materials!
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