In many relationships in life, hope can be a pretty good strategy. But the relationship between a manager and his or her employees is not one of them. Hope is the crutch of an ineffective manager, someone who invites otherwise avoidable litigation. I’m here to tell you: manage your employees or get out of the way.
Instead of actually addressing problems when they arise, ineffective managers rely on hope. They hope an employee will decide to start getting up earlier and arrive on time. They hope that the employee will rise to expectations. At wits end, they hope that an employee will move on to a “better opportunity.” All the while, that employee grows more and more comfortable with the lowered expectations that are steadily established as the office norm. Worse still, other employees see firsthand the lack of consequences for poor performance.
