Eighteen Years Later

My first real job out of college was being a Quality Manager of a small manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Back then, I was big into keeping journals of my thoughts and experiences. I found one of my journals this weekend and was entertained with the experiences I had as a wet behind the ear engineer who planned to fix the world's problems.

Here is a passage from a time when an employee (of mine) quit. This had never happened to me before and I struggled with my thoughts. Her name is fictitious.

Margaret quit today. I hate to see her leave. She is a fine lady and a very good worker. In retrospect, I dwelled on her negative performance far more than her accomplishments. First of all, she was very concerned with the well being of the company and the quality of processes and products. Her involvement in the "What If" program was rivaled by few. She provided daily suggestions for improvement. Her strength unfortunately was her weakness. She was so personal and concerned that she could not say no to anyone.

I should have trained her better. Looking ahead, new employees will have a structured training program mixing textbook study with applications. The time will be split between learning procedures on the floor and movement throughout the plant learning processes and meeting associates.

It is very easy to confront someone with performance failures, human errors, and mistakes. Each is obvious because it contradicts the expected result. When the result is not achieved, the person's integrity and commitment is questioned. No matter how well the dialogue is carried, the perception is of criticism.

Incredibly, it seems difficult to find positive aspects of performance. When the results are achieved, you may mention it to the person. However, we mostly ignore the work put forth to achieve the result.