If you work from home or if you manage someone who works from home, what have you done to make it work?

I was talking to a client recently who was struggling to manage a team member who worked from home. It turned out that the arrangement had ‘just sort of happened’, no rules or way or working had been agreed … 

I spoke to both the employee and the manager - and it turned out both were equally dissatisfied with the arrangement.

Why don’t people talk to each other? Well, because the manager has to make the time and be open to listen to what the team member is really saying and the team member has to feel able to raise issues with the manager.

This is all related to feedback skills. If the manager in this situation had explained his frustration (in terms of the impact on performance) and then listened to the team member’s point of view, then this could have been resolved months ago.

If you have an unresolved issue, then deal with it. If you need help with feedback skills, then why not send me an email for help - or ask a coach to talk it through with you.

I was talking to someone who’s just returned from holiday and he told me about a conversation he had whilst stood in the queue at the local Fish and Chip shop. The owner was talking about the different deep fat fryers available (apparently the Dutch ones look after themselves, but the UK ones need more skill to use well) and the difficulty of taking time off as no-one could be trusted to use the fryer in his business properly - not uncommon in small businesses - not uncommon in teams either.

Does this sound familiar? It’s yet another way to say ‘I’m better off doing this myself’ – ever find yourself saying:

• ‘it’ll be quicker if I do it myself’
• ‘he always does it wrong – I’ll just do it now’
• ‘this is really complicated – as the expert, I need to do it’
• ‘she never produces the right quality’
• … or similar.

I’m sure we’ve all done it at times but is that good management? Of course not and tempting though it is – and yes we can give all the best ‘reasons’ for it – it’s bad management and if you find yourself saying or even thinking any of these little phrases, then you need to consider what you can do differently. That way, you’ll free up more time to manage – rather than do.

So, what’s the answer – well, it has to be a two-pronged approach – one won’t work without the other:

• you need to do some work on yourself - No more excuses, no more saying or thinking the phrases above
• you need to do some work with your team member. Training isn’t only done through training courses –there are lots of ways for people to learn new skills or to improve existing ones.

What will work best for the team member and you right now?

Hmmm – I wonder if there’s such a thing as an NVQ in fish-frying?