Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

The message to a person should be the same as the message about a person.

What I say to a person is the same as what I say about a person. At least it should be. In other words, I say the same thing when the person is in the room as when the person is not. Furthermore, I do it in a way that everyone knows it.

It is too easy to say, “If the person were here I would say the same thing to their face.”

Fine. If that is true, that person should be here, now, while I am talking. If that person is not here, I don’t talk about them. “But I have hired you to evaluate that person.” Fine, let’s find a way to do this right. Until we find a way to do it right, we won’t do it wrong.

Sometimes it is difficult to be an adult and a manager at the same time.