Mad_Man

Have you ever heard the phrase "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians", this is the case of having no leadership structure in place in a working environment.  Everybody to some degree feels that they can do the job better and that the person that is in charge doesn't have a clue on what they are doing and should be part of the work force.  I know that i have in some cases the same mentality when it came to work that I was doing and I wasn't the boss.  When this happens, the whole operation suffers.

The hardest thing for anyone to do is to humble yourself and do what you are told and support your leadership, right or wrong but make sure that it is ethical.  I am currently dealing with this issue and feel that others can benefit from my experience.  I had a foreman that was working for me and just recently I went on my vacation.  I learned on my return that he is now my manager.  How does this guy skip supervisor position and become a manager?  How did I get passed up for the promotion?  How, how, how, why, why, why???????  Oh the resentment was there and is still here, what can I do but deal with the issues at hand.  The guy doesn't have the experience in the management area and hasn't developed the people skills to deal with issues at that level.  So what did I do, I went against the grain.  The internal politics of the work area was in full effect.  This caused distrust and now we are working against each other which means that the operation is suffering.  Every day instead of dealing with work, I am dealing with the he said this, he does that, why does he get away with this.  It makes me sick that I've let myself go this far into the petty bullshit and not being more mature to do what is write.

So I am making the changes that I know have to be made in order to succeed.  I am humbling myself and becoming a mentor to this new manager.  I am doing what needs to be done so that my manager learns how to be a manager and molding him into a big picture person.  The overall responsibility falls on him and I am going to do what it takes to help him.  But still . . . . .  I know, I know that I will learn what I want in a supervisor when I become a manager, but first I have to do what is expected of me and even some of what is not expected of me so that my leader shines, besides it's his time and my time will come.