I am a new manager, having been promoted from a senior technical role. Today I had my first man-management challenge.
I had to mediate between two of my programmers. The first, (Lets call him Mr A) one of my team for about 5 years, very experiencedand good at his job, but also arrogant, rude and abusive. The second, (Mr B) a recent hire is also quite ‘Self confident’ but keeping a lid on it because he is new.
Mr B was taking over a project from Mr A, and they had run through it once with Mr A in control and Mr B taking notes. The next time, Mr B did the job with Mr A watching. Mr B made a couple of mistakes (Largely caused by his inacurate notes). Mr A writes him some additional notes, and he runs through it again.
Again Mr B makes the same mistakes, and Mr A, losing his patience by now, tears up Mr B’s notes and tells him to use the notes he has been given. Mr A then storms off and the both spend 10 minutes at opposite ends of the building cooling off.
Having noticed this washappening, I immediatly went and spoke to Mr B. I asked if he was OK, and he insisted that he needed some time to ‘compose himself’. I then went and spoke to Mr A. I told him that I realised that Mr B could be frustrating sometimes, but that he was new and Mr A should lay off him. I also told him that tearing up his notes was out of order.
I then went back to Mr B and explained that Mr A was often rude, arrogant and abusive, and that he was like that with everyone from the cleaner to the MD. I told him that I had known him for 10 years and Mr A had always been like that and I didn’t see any likelyhood that he would change. I told him that it wasn’t personal, it was just his way and that he should let it run off him like water off a ducksback.
Anyone think I handled it well? Anyone think I handled it badly? Anyone had similar experiences?
