Personal Narrative: My First Scenarios

In the first scenerio: "I have a fantastic manager. She is a strong leader, supportive, kind, and still has high expectations. I recently missed sending an email to a client that she asked me to follow-up with. I want to make sure that I never disappoint her." One solution to take after not following up with the client as directed by the manager could be to immediately email the manager and let her know about the mistake made in not completing her directions. Also immediately email the client to continue following up with them. Not following up with the client is the employee's mistake and he/she could use better time management skills, a lesson learned in Pro-Skills. To never disappoint the manager again using a calender, sticking notes

on the desk, and using a phone application for task reminders could aslo help.
Another Pro-Skills lesson that could be incorportated in this scenerio is managing the manager. By keeping the manager informed along the way is a good way to manage the manager. This can be done by letting her know the mistake that happened, the followup email was sent to the client, and the conclusion to the conversation the employee and the client had. Just by communicating the situation he/she can continue to manage the expectations, the success, and relationship they have with the manager and recover from this one mistake.

In the second scenerio: "I’m really proud of the work I’ve done for my manager but my manager never says anything positive to me.

He only talks to you when there is a problem." A trouble area in this situation is that the boss does not acknowledge all the good that is done by the employee, but the bad. The employee could start to feel underappreciated. At the same time, a boss should not have to always point out when an employee does good every single time. To handle the situation the employee should meet up with the manager and use the collaborating management style. When using the collaborating style, use feedback and encourage the manager that speaking to an employee when they do good work instead of just when problems arise can bring more productivity and better work. When acknowledging good work ethic every once in awhile will make an employee feel appreciated and that their work is not going

unnoticed.

In the third scenerio: "My team is working on an important project.

As the team leader, I am supposed to give my manager progress reports, but she is always so busy. I feel like I’m bothering her, so I would rather just wait until the project is almost over and give her one big update." A solution to improve this situation is to just take initive as the team leader by emailing the progress reports to the manager and dropping a copy off by her office with a note on it. Not turning in the progress reports as it was asked is not doing anyone any good and is definietly not helping the important group project. The manager may want progress reports to see if anything with the project needs be changed or adjusted. By waiting to the end to give a big update may just be making extra work for the group in the end. An employee cannot feel like they are "bothering" a manager because a manager will always be busy with a busy position managing the tens or hundrends of

people.
An approach that can be taken that has been learned in Pro-Skills is the Competing management style. Just take the authoritatn approach as the team leader and deliver the progress reports no matter the situatuion. If the manager is busy when the employee delivers the progress report, he/she can also use the 7c's of communication. The employee can walk into the manager's office and be clear, confidient, considerate, and complete and state: " I know you are busy however, here are the progress reports that were asked of me. If you have any questions or comments please let me know. I can come back to follow up with you." In the workplace you have to take initive and get the job done.