Quote:
Originally Posted by kadudu
A coworker hired the guy before I came into the business. I have my own way of dealing with employees usually and it works well, but they've always been American employees. The situation is different for me this time, however, because my partners told me that I can't manage the employees in the same way as I would normally because they're conscious of wanting to respect 'Japanese business culture' or something. The employees are all Japanese immigrants who are pretty fresh of the boat and I guess I have to be more 'respectful' or what have you - meaning they prohibited me from getting scary and yelling when people fuck up like how I usually handle it.
So I guess I'm looking for a more tactful and "nice" approach.
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You can't be tactful and nice to people you are managing. You have to be both firm and fair. They are there to work for you. Stop being a pussy. Don't make the mistake of believing things are "cultural". I've made that same mistake in other countries when I was younger and you eventually learn the hard way that leadership is leadership in any language. No one follows a weak leader. End of story.
Go to McDonalds in Tokyo. Go to TGI Fridays in Moscow. Go to KFC in Amsterdam. Go to IKEA in Kiev. Go to a BMW dealer in Minsk. They aren't all just doing their own thing because everything is "cultural". All of these places are ran exactly the same no matter what country they are in. They hire well. They train people well. They fire quickly.
You let people know whats expected. You let people know what you expect of each of them. Then you start firing people to get the bad people out. Then you let everyone know why those people were fired. The damage was already done. Shitty people were hired and they are testing YOU right now. Your response? To surrender to them. VERY bad idea. Anyone that has managed people on a large scale or ran a large business understands very well that even a single bad employee can be a fatal cancer. Trying to appease cancer is not an effective strategy to remove it.
You're the boss. Act like a boss.
Start figuring out how to replace this person. If you can't... then you're doomed to fail anyway.