This week, I am featuring her direct quotes and thoughts on managing people (dictated in 1997). Her slightly controversial opinion on the difference between men and women will make you laugh and yet the differences do exist. It seems ironic that all these years later, I would find a similar passion in management and mentoring. As a junior in college, I could not have ever known that our personal and career paths would end up being very similar. For anyone in management, her brutal honesty will ring true. Time has not changed the struggle or the rewards.
Category Archives: Middle Management
BLINDSIDED
The definition of “blindside” is to hit unexpectedly from or as if from the (blind) side; to surprise unpleasantly. In middle management, one of the most frustrating and anger evoking actions a colleague can take is to blindside another colleague. When this unpleasant surprise is directed toward one of your employees, the instinctive reaction is emotional and protective. I have found that the most challenging part of dealing with a blindside is knowing that the very first action I want to take is the very last thing that I should do, which is to react emotionally, protectively, personally.
WORDS, ACTIONS, RESULTS
I started my career in 1998 at Hormel Foods Corporation. At that time, I listened to a lot of people. I took instructions from managers and colleagues, listened to advice and tried to understand industry terminology along the way. There were a lot of words and acronyms to absorb.
BACK TO THE BASICS
I have recently noticed a trend. It is a trend that is consuming my calendar and filling my email in box. I also have to admit that the trend has become so consuming in my work life that I have been sucked into it at times. It is the trend of copying everyone in the organization on an email and including everyone (and their brother) on conference calls just for the purpose of CC’ing and covering tracks. I will be the first to call out the trend so that I can also be the one that tries to do my part to stop it.
FAILURE IS A BUMP IN THE ROAD, NEVER THE END OF THE ROAD
At the completion of my senior year of college, my father was asked by my sorority to describe his daughter in a “tribute” letter for my graduation, my dad wrote the following:
“No does not mean no to Melanie, it is an opportunity for negotiation.”
SHE BELIEVED IN ME
The most amazing teacher I ever had retired this week after 40 years in education. Her name is Deb Waddell, she reads this blog, so this may catch her a little by surprise. Deb was my 5th grade science teacher at Saint Paul Academy in St. Paul, MN. In my second attempt at 5th grade, I was truly a defeated soul. I had little confidence and even fewer friends. I had not found my love for anything yet and I would often cry in my room at night trying to figure out how I would get through the next day.
THE STRENGTH IS IN THE STRUGGLE
The hallway of Saint Paul Academy was cold, the carpeted floor was dirty from a day of 5th and 6th grader foot traffic. It was 1986, I sat outside of my 5th grade classroom waiting for my parents to wrap up their parent teacher conference with Mr. Brown and Mrs. Frost. The team teachers had a combined classroom of 5th and 6th graders, that is how Saint Paul Academy liked to run their educational program.
KNOW YOUR MOST VALUABLE TOOL
I was sitting in Panera carefully reviewing the plan for the day as my frustration continued to build. On this day, I was scheduled to work with a graduate from our companies Graduate Program. He was beginning a two-week cycle with the Commercial team and shadowing me for the day followed by shadowing my sales team members the rest of the week. Our scheduled meeting time had come and gone, and he had yet to arrive, text or call.
IT IS ALL IN THE DELIVERY
A good friend recently told me a story she heard in one of her leadership coaching sessions. The man leading the session had gone to dinner the previous evening with his family. His teenage daughter was in a horrible mood. When he inquired on what she was upset about, she reported that her soccer coach had called her out of practice and critiqued her playing. She felt like she was failing and was so upset by the feedback. The wife at the table instantly went into defense mode, promising her daughter that she was going to contact the coach and get this resolved since obviously he was being a “real jerk”. The father in this conversation could not keep a straight face as he witnessed this back and forth. Once the daughter and mother finished, the wife inquired “what are you smiling about”? He stated simply, you are both upset because the coach was coaching.
MEET HER IN THE MIDDLE
Four weeks before my first son was born in 2004, I was promoted to a Regional Managers position; I began reporting to a man that had little patience for the idea that I was going to have my first child in a few weeks.
The Heart of the Middle 