Match or Mismatch?

We have all had manager we love and had to deal with managers we hate. This disconnect usually occurs because the way we are lead doesn’t match the way we want to be lead. Blanchard calls this theory Situational Leadership. This theory has 4 essential pieces:

Low Competence, High Commitment: This is a person who doesn’t know much but is very committed to the job. I had a horrible mismatch with my manager on my first day by myself at the front desk. I had been training for about 2 weeks and all of my shifts started in the afternoon. I didn’t have any actual hands on training at the front desk in the morning checking people out, but I did watch a few training videos on how to do it (so basically I knew nothing.) I looked at the schedule and my first shift by myself without my trainer- 7:00am. I asked my manager if I would have someone there to help me if I needed it because I wasn’t too confident with the checkout process or dealing with disputes. She assured me that everything would be fine. Well, everything was not fine. It was only me and one other agent and I was swimming in questions and transactions I didn’t know how to do. The worst part, nobody would help me. Long story short I went home in tears that day never wanting to come back.

High Competence, High Commitment:

These people are really good at what they do and love doing it. This is a great feeling. I have been an intern for an events company since my freshman year. I’ve done more events than I can count and my boss and I are very close. Starting my junior year she began handing me my own brides. I would do everything from the initial contact, timeline, and day of coordination. It was an awesome feeling to see how much she trusted in my skills and professionalism.

Low Competence, Low Commitment:

To say the least, these people are the worst. They need a lot of coaching and a lot of babysitting for them to get anything (literally anything) done. At my front desk job we work closely with the bellman and communicate through a 2 way radio. We offer welcome cocktails upon check in and the bellman usually deliver them. One of my bellman you had to write down the rooms and hand him them or else he would "forget" and not have them delivered. I also noticed he started to take extra, extra, extra long lunches. My front office supervisors started saying the time out loud when he would ask to on break. This would let him know that she knew about what time he should be back on the clock. Well played, well played.

High Competence, Low Commitment

And finally the second worst in my book. These people are very competent in their work but you can tell do not want to be there. These may be people who are looking to move up in the company or the department and feel bored at work. They go through the motions but may bring the team down by complaining, leaving early, coming in late, etc. When dealing with these employees I feel like you should ask questions like what they aspire to do in the future, if they would be okay taking on some extra responsibilities, or learning a new task that isn't in their regular job description. I also think that these employees have a need to feel appreciated.