A Word from the Wise
By Michaela
February 22, 2007Bill Coy, a senior associate with our firm, is always full of wisdom. He helps our clients with mergers, partnerships, and strategic planning, but his specialty is human resources management. His work in this area is immeasurably strengthened by the fact that he spent many years as a family therapist before getting into HR.
In this regard Bill and I were recently discussing a particularly challenging management problem a client was having. It was on Valentine’s Day, in fact; Bill summed it up: “Before every temporary restraining order, there was a Valentine’s Day card.”
It is always good to remember, when managing staff in your nonprofit, that a current good relationship with an employee, even one you might characterize as a working friendship, can quickly turn south. In fact, according to this adage of Bill’s, it’s the relationships you currently feel best about that hold the most promise for going farthest south.
I think this makes sense. If a relationship with an employee about whom you have concerns or with whom you have just never “clicked,” starts to go bad, you will not be surprised, telling yourself, “I saw this coming.” Whereas in a good strong relationship you may be surprised and dismayed by inappropriate behavior, inconsistent work where it was previously uniformly good, or an angry parting. Your own reaction may just make things worse.
The bottom line — no matter how much you like, respect, and care for your staff members — they are still your employees first and foremost. You have to maintain the ability to manage them, even to terminate them, if necessary, and to do so in a calm professional way.
One of the great strengths of our sector is our culture of caring for our staff; we often refer to them, with all sincerity, as friends. But this strength can become an equally great flaw when things head south with an employee.
Like many challenges nonprofit managers face, this one requires a tricky balance.
Tags: nonprofit