Hans Lee | Design and Life

THOUGHT: When there is an issue, the person who flags it is usually not the one you expect. Listen to them. Don't disregard their comments or there may be serious consequences.

When people in an organization start to become negative, destructive or frustrated, the key is to quickly remedy the situation to make them successful again. The hardest thing can be recognizing that issues have to be dealt with before they blow in to huge problems. Many times, issues are shielded from managers, brushed under the rug or only partially dealt with.

The key is to be able to hear and see the issues as quickly as possible and treat them seriously. From experience, the people who report these issues are usually not in the chain of management, and may not even be in the company. This means they may be disregarded unless you are listening carefully.

Two times, my wife flagged problems which were arising before I realized they existed, by listen to my small frustrations after work build over a few week period.

Other times, a concerned team member would come in and want to talk about their frustrations in a project and, it would turn out they were because of a set of actions another person had taken.

Sometimes, the person themselves would come on and try to communicate their frustrations.

Listen to them.

Whenever anyone comes to you with a problem or you overhear it, you have to treat it seriously. By doing this, you will address them quickly and will also set a precedent for the rest of the company that issues will not be tolerated and will be appropriately resolved.