A client remarked the other day about how this blog has made her think about her own dog and the correlation to the interactions she has with the employees at her company. “When my dog makes a mistake, I don’t get rid of him,” she said. “Instead, I try to find ways to avoid the mistake in the future, or I just say to myself: ‘well I don’t like that he dumps over the trash every once in a while, but overall he’s a good dog and I can live with [the trash dumping].’”
When I was telling my husband this story, he reminded me of a different situation we had recently heard about a dog owner that gave up her dog because it shed too much. Shed too much??? Dogs shed. Granted, some shed more than others, but you’ll always have some hair and dirt to content with. Shouldn’t you understand that before you make the decision to invite him as a member to the family?
Gaining access to all those wonderful smells in a kitchen trash can is a natural thing for a dog to do, just like some people have a natural inclination to do some things that we ourselves wouldn’t want to do. When you hire or manage an employee in your organization, how much tolerance do you have when they do something that doesn’t meet your expectations? Do you make efforts to give her the support she needs? Or perhaps direct her into a role that better suits her strengths? There is an appropriate time to mutually decide when an employee may not be a good fit for the position or the organization, but it’s always best to make sure other options are explored.
