Years ago, my manager Robert X didn’t turn up for work one day because he and his wife were so upset at their cat dying.
I remember to this day being stunned in disbelief. How can a grown man, a senior manager, be so upset at his cat dying that he had to take a day off? How unprofessional.
In my defence I was young and inexperienced in life, as well as work. Since then I’ve become a father (she’s now 17) and we’ve had many pets along the way. With this valuable life experience I’ve learned how to appreciate other people’s emotions and reactions to situations I don’t have any clue about or understanding. I’ve learned that no matter how different people are and how different their opinions and emotions, they deserve my respect, because they’re the one’s going through that situation, not me.
I bring this learning in to my work as a Customer Service and Management Development consultant and trainer. For those working in customer service, every customer brings the challenge of a different emotion to a different situation. Every customer deserves our respect and empathy, and of course, our willingness to help them no matter how trivial the situation may seem to us.
Line managers have a similar challenge, except it’s the emotions of their team they need to respond to and manage. The Covid pandemic has brought many challenges and staff are coping in varying degrees of ease and difficulty. For example, as line managers we must not judge our team on our own ability to handle lockdown and isolation, we must handle each member of staff differently depending upon their need; flexibility in our leadership style is essential.
You may have read my post yesterday about my dog Jack who’s suddenly become terminally ill. I’d hoped we’d got a few years left together, but speaking to the vet this morning however, I find he may even only have days or weeks. I’m gutted.
So, if I have a day off at some point in the near future, I’m hoping my colleagues and customers will respect my decision, and not judge me like I judged Robert all those years ago. Empathy is such a valuable art and life skill.