39
Don’t Parent a Difficult Employee

It’s easy to find yourself falling into the parent trap at work. You may feel a great affinity for a young, ambitious employee because he attended your alma mater. And the person’s charisma and big ideas may wow you. So when he refuses to do an assignment he considers beneath him you may just let him have his way. You may tell his supervisor to find something more worthy of your protégé’s talent. If you do, you’re parenting, not leading.

Jason was chomping at the bit to move into management. He had become chummy with a high-ranking executive who was impressed with his Ivy League background and superb organizational skills. Jason’s boss, a middle manager, asked him to take on a project. Even though Jason was relatively new to the company, he considered the work beneath him. He felt the assignment would slow down his march to management. He complained to his mentor, the executive, and he, in turn, asked the manager to assign the project to someone else. The coworker who inherited the assignment felt dumped on.

If an employee is so special that should mean he could take on any assignment and produce good work. Sure you have to challenge bright employees with plum assignments, but they shouldn’t be shielded from work that everyone else is expected to tackle. If you find yourself frequently going out of normal channels to accommodate a demanding would-be star, you’re acting more like Daddy than Manager.