{"id":5082,"date":"2014-06-24T08:29:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T15:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recruitloop.wpengine.com\/?p=5082"},"modified":"2023-05-15T10:41:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T17:41:19","slug":"8-of-my-most-memorable-aha-management-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zippia.com\/employer\/8-of-my-most-memorable-aha-management-moments\/","title":{"rendered":"8 of My Most Memorable \u201cAha\u201d Management Moments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Type the phrase \u201cmanagement tips\u201d into Google. Go on. How many hundred million results came up in your search?<\/p>\n

Clearly there\u2019s plenty of information for experienced managers, first-time managers, or even those \u2018wannabe\u2019 managers out there.<\/p>\n

Oh but rest assured this isn\u2019t just another blog post containing advice for managers. In the last few months I\u2019ve shared some of my more bizarre hiring stories<\/a>, as well as some \u2018interesting\u2019 firing stories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So in this post I just wanted to share some of my \u2018light bulb\u2019 moments as a manager. Those moments when \u2018the penny dropped\u2019 so to speak. When I suddenly realised what I had really<\/em> got myself into.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Awkward silence, anyone?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I loved working with my colleagues. Some of us had even become really close friends.\u00a0But I was also dead keen on becoming a manager.<\/p>\n

My promotion was confirmed and it was officially announced at the end of quarter company function where my peers shook my hand, hugged me and appeared really supportive and happy for me.<\/p>\n

But then something happened. The weekend came around and there were no phone calls suggesting a dinner, movie, tennis or roller-blading (hello late 1990s!).<\/p>\n

Monday morning was even worse.<\/p>\n

When I arrived in the office I could hear everyone chatting in the breakout area but when I walked in, the room went deathly silent.<\/p>\n

Welcome to management!<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Who needs Big Brother<\/em>!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Surely the original producers of Big Brother<\/em> didn\u2019t seriously think that throwing a group of complete strangers into a house and \u2018watching what plays out\u2019 was the first social experiment of it\u2019s kind!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve managed quite a few teams in my career and if they\u2019d only popped a few cameras around my offices, now that<\/em> would have made for some seriously top rating prime time TV viewing.<\/p>\n

I would never have expected from a group of adult professionals the number of screaming sessions, temper tantrums, storm outs, b*tch fights, manipulative mind games, and backstabbing that I\u2019ve witnessed in my time.<\/p>\n

But just like in the Big Brother<\/em> house, apply alcohol at the end of the month and everyone suddenly became best friends!<\/p>\n

As long as I can host the \u2018eviction episodes\u2019 or \u2018tribal councils\u2019, I\u2019ll put my hand up now to direct and produce \u201cThe Real Housewives of Recruitment<\/em>\u201d or \u201cSurvivor: The Corporate Jungle<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The script is already written!<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0When the cat\u2019s away \u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I won\u2019t bore you with the gory details, but a mosquito once landed me in hospital with a mysterious infection.<\/p>\n

Yes I ended up being away from my\u00a0high performing (or so I thought!) sales environment for several<\/em> weeks.<\/p>\n

A few of my team came to visit me which was nice, but I just assumed that everyone knew what they were expected to do and that even though I wasn\u2019t physically in the office, they\u2019d all just get on with it.<\/p>\n

Never assume.<\/p>\n

When I was eventually OK to return to work I was absolutely mortified.<\/p>\n

I know I promised that this post wouldn\u2019t include \u2018management tips\u2019. But I bet you this one has never been included in the manual …<\/p>\n

Remember to apply insect repellent!<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0They don\u2019t all have to like me \u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

But a bit of respect would be nice (just a little bit!)<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take me long to understand that resignations are just part and parcel of management life and you learn to live with it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had several \u2018difficult\u2019 staff members resign and still conduct themselves totally\u00a0professionally during their notice period.<\/p>\n

But then there were a few unexpected surprises.<\/p>\n

I remember on one particular occasion I\u2019d had 1:1 meetings with all my team before heading off on a 2-week work trip. Everyone seemed fine.<\/p>\n

The very next day when I turned my phone on after a 15-hour flight, I received a text message from one of the guys in the office. \u201cI am giving you my 2-weeks notice effective today. I\u2019ll be gone when you get back<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

And then there was the time when I received a fax (OK so I am showing my age here again!) from one of my team while she was away on holidays in Europe. It just said, \u201cHi Paul. I\u2019ve decided not to come back. Good luck and thanks for everything<\/em>!\u201d<\/p>\n

Seriously!<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0I\u2019ve got the power!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As a recruiter I always loved the fact that I may have been responsible for helping someone land their dream job.\u00a0The gratitude I received in return was incredibly uplifting.<\/p>\n

As a manager I also loved bringing people into my team and seeing the excitement in their eyes when they walked in on their first day.<\/p>\n

To be honest I never really appreciated how I also held the destiny of each of my team members in my hands until \u2018the Simone episode\u2019.<\/p>\n

Simone was from Europe and had come to Australia on a working holiday visa. I had then sponsored her since I thought she\u2019d be a great fit for my team.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately in the first two months I realised I\u2019d made a mistake. Simone just wasn\u2019t performing and I knew I couldn\u2019t keep her in the business.<\/p>\n

Letting someone go is never easy. But when you are also personally responsible for their working rights in the country and you need to part ways, it also means that if they can\u2019t find somebody else to take over their sponsorship they then have 28 days to leave the country.<\/p>\n

She told me that she\u2019d always dreamed of living in Australia. I had believed in her and I had given her an opportunity. Unfortunately when things didn\u2019t work out she wasn\u2019t able to find a new position within the authorized time period and so she had to return to Europe.<\/p>\n

I had single handedly killed the dream.<\/p>\n

Talk about a few sleepless nights.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0It\u2019s lonely at the top<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Management life isn\u2019t always easy.<\/p>\n

There were times when I know the \u2018duck on a pond\u2019 analogy certainly rang true with me. On the surface I was nice and calm. But my goodness was I paddling like crazy under the water.<\/p>\n

Of course I could never let anyone in my team know if I felt like I was changing the tyres on a moving bus \u2026 (think about it!).\u00a0And at the same time I never wanted to let my boss think I wasn\u2019t in complete control.<\/p>\n

Remember: Managers have bosses too!<\/p>\n

With nobody to vent to, share the frustrations with, or just cry out for help to, sometimes it got pretty damn lonely.<\/p>\n

So I went and found myself an executive coach.<\/p>\n

I called her \u2018my professional shrink\u2019 \u2026<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0The Cone of Silence<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Over the years I\u2019ve probably heard it all.<\/p>\n

Marriage problems \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m pregnant and I\u2019m pretty sure my husband isn\u2019t the father<\/em>\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

Health issues \u2013 at least when I had to call the ambulance I knew exactly what to tell the paramedics;<\/p>\n

Personal financial crises \u2013 one of my team once even asked me if I could lend her the money to pay for her child\u2019s school fees since her husband had done a runner and she didn\u2019t want to take the child out of private school …<\/p>\n

Of course there were plenty of good things too \u2013 like knowing when one of the team was going to ask his girlfriend to marry him before his family even knew \u2026<\/p>\n

Being a confidant, counselor, and \u2018trusted vault\u2019 comes with the territory.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d sit down in a meeting room and the first words out of their mouth would be \u201cAre we in the cone of silence?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0I really can<\/em> do this!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps I haven\u2019t painted the most glamorous picture of management. And after these few stories you may choose not to believe me if I told you I wouldn\u2019t have traded my years as a manager in for anything.<\/p>\n

Sure it may well have been a roller coaster ride. But just like a kid at a theme park, after the ups and downs, the times when you want to hurl, the screams, and the heart-racing, adrenalin-filled excitement, you jut want to go back on the ride again!<\/p>\n

When you stop and realise that you have built a team of 50 people pretty much from scratch; that you have built a multi-million dollar business; when you read the wording on the Christmas cards you receive from some of your team members; and when some of them still call you more than 10 years later to ask you for advice, you know you\u2019ve done it \u2026 and you\u2019ve done it well.<\/p>\n

Got any \u2018Aha\u2019 management moments of your own? Feel free to share them with us!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this post I wanted to share some of my \u2018light bulb\u2019 moments as a manager. Those moments when \u2018the penny dropped\u2019 so to speak. When I suddenly realised what I had actually got myself into.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[147],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n8 of My Most Memorable \u201cAha\u201d Management Moments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this post I wanted to share some of my \u2018light bulb\u2019 moments as a manager. 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