Working Up

Managers and others in high position don’t “just know” how to work well with people. They have to learn it. Some of the rest of us have to learn that the managers have to learn.

by Dwayne Phillips

I kept my four-month-old grandson for a couple of hours yesterday while my wife and daughter-in-law went to lunch. He is an exceptional kid. (By definition – he is the only grandson in the world that is related to me. Hence, he is an exception to the rule.)

While entertaining one another, my grandson would smile at me. That is a great thing to experience – a baby smiling at you. I am quite proud of my son and his wife. You see, babies don’t inherently smile. Somone teaches them to smile. They mimick the facial expressions they see. My son and his wife have done a lot of smiling at my grandson during his four months of life. I hope the trend continues.

The connection with anything of import? Babies learn to smile. Babies learn to experience happiness. They don’t “just come by it naturally.”

The vast majority of managers learn to be happy at work. It doesn’t just come naturally. Someone shows them the benefit of being happy and other good things. This simple thought did not come naturally to me. I have often felt that “people just knew these things.” And “he couldn’t possibly have acheived his position in the organization without knowing such these things.”

I was wrong.

Some people don’t smile at their new-born baby.  Some people never give their secretary flowers. Some people never buy lunch for their employees. Some people never bring fresh-baked cookies in to the office.

Some people achieve high position without knowing that people are important to them.

If you meet with one of these people, gently point out that babies learn to smile. Someone has smiled at them over and over and given them corresponding hugs. Gently help them learn that flowers and lunches and cookies and smiles go a long ways toward success in management and projects and all sorts of human endeavor.

If you meet someone who was like me and is convinced that Mr. so-and-so knows we like appreciation, but chooses not to give it – well, gently tell me that I am wrong. That people have to learn these things. Then encourage that person like me to do his best to encourage the manager to learn to smile.