You try your best to maintain an excellent relationship with your employees. It’s a delicate line between staying professional and being friendly. Despite your efforts to maintain a good relationship, there are instances when it’s tough. You won’t always agree with them. Some meetings might even end up being tense due to disagreements. Before the situation escalates, there are some things you need to do.
Don’t say the phrase “I’m the boss”
You might feel tempted to assert command and leadership, but saying the phrase out loud isn’t helping. Besides, saying that you’re the boss is exactly why you shouldn’t be. Leaders are humble enough to say that they’re not always right, according to HBR. The situation will only become more stressful if you say that you’re the boss and your word is final. Listen to everyone in the room. It takes humility to say that other ideas are better than yours.
Give everyone time to absorb the information
There are instances when you’re only the messenger during the discussion. The other bosses already made the decision, and everyone has to follow. Since you’re on the management team, you have to deliver the message as clearly as you can. If there are hesitations and strong emotions, you need to listen. You might even side with the other employees. You just don’t have a choice. You only received the task of sending the message, so you don’t need to argue. If the employees are totally against the changes and they would like to raise the issue, let them know how they can do it. If you want to respond to the sentiments, you can quote the people who asked you to relay the message. Avoid injecting your own biases in the conversation since they will make things worse.
Postpone the meeting
If things are getting tense, there’s no need to pursue the conversation. You can postpone the meeting for a while. Gather everyone some other time. By then, the employees will have had time to think about the problem. Emotions won’t be running high anymore, and there will be a willingness to listen.
Don’t carry the problem home
It feels terrible to be in the middle of a tense work situation. You might not stop thinking about what happened and carry the problem home with you. Make sure that you leave everything behind. Once you step out of the office, you shouldn’t feel bad anymore. Even if the issue has no solution yet, you always have the next day to deal with it.
Once you reach home, you can take a nice shower and release stress. If you have steam showers, it’s even better. You will have a more relaxing bathing experience. You can purchase one online and install it at home soon.
Never let your family feel that you’re going through a lot at work. Don’t take it out on them. Learn how to calm down before you interact with the people you love. You only have an hour or so at night. Don’t use it to get enraged about what happened at work.
