Weather Patterns
You walk in stressed and slam your bag down. Ten minutes later, your team is working in tense silence and snapping at each other.
What is emotional contagion?
You assign a complex task without clear instructions, and it fails. You assume, "They are professionals, they should already know what I want."
What are Should Statements?
"When you interrupted Sarah, it shut down the brainstorm. Help me understand what was happening there."
What is the SBI-I model?
An employee keeps making mistakes on a new software system despite trying hard. You diagnose this as a skill issue and consider the other two possibilities.
What is skill, will, or circumstance?
An employee mentions they need next Thursday off to help their mother recover from surgery.
What is FMLA?
You are highly competent and dependable. Every time work in the department gets a shout out, you happily accept all the credit yourself.
What is Self-Orientation?
You make a minor mistake in a meeting and assume your team is quietly judging you and waiting for you to fail.
What is Mind Reading?
Before a difficult conversation, you take 5 minutes to clear your internal weather and calm your forecast.
What is PREP?
You draft a memo stating "John has a bad attitude about punctuality." HR tells you to rewrite it using this type of language.
What is factual (or behavioral) language?
You hear two employees making jokes about a coworker's religion. The coworker isn't there, but you immediately do this.
What is reporting it to HR?
You tell your team, "I like my reports stapled, not paperclipped." This violates the difference between a standard and this.
What is a preference?
One team meeting goes off the rails, and you immediately think, "I'm a terrible supervisor and I will never get this right".
What is All-or-Nothing Thinking?
An employee yells, "This new policy is totally unfair!" You reply, "I can see this is really frustrating for you."
What is validating?
You have an informal, documented conversation with an employee about their attendance. If it continues, this is the exact next step on the ladder.
What is a Written Warning?
An employee with a medical condition asks for a modified schedule. You engage HR to begin this back-and-forth conversation.
What is the interactive process?
An employee is venting. Instead of immediately offering advice, you intentionally count to three in your head before replying
What is the 3-second pause?
You delay telling an employee their report was sloppy because you're convinced the conversation will permanently destroy your working relationship.
What is Catastrophizing?
Instead of telling an employee exactly how to fix an error, you ask, "What steps have you considered taking to prevent this?"
What is coaching?
You wait until the September annual review to tell an employee their work has been unacceptable since March, violating this policy.
What is "no surprises"?
An employee reports a coworker for inappropriate comments. The next day, you start auditing only that employee's work and writing them up for 2-minute tardies while ignoring everyone else.
What is retaliation?
Your tenured employee is highly skilled but suddenly unmotivated after a project change. You investigate their barriers rather than directing or coaching.
What is diagnosing circumstance?
You receive a promotion and instantly worry that your team will think you are not a good fit for the job.
What is Imposter Thinking?
"Good job" is generic. "Your analysis in section 3 helped us see a trend we were missing" is this.
What is specific (or meaningful) recognition?
You catch an employee stealing city property. Instead of starting with a Verbal Counseling, you skip the progressive discipline ladder completely.
What is a major offense?
During a feedback session, an employee becomes erratic and vaguely threatens you. Your immediate next step is to gracefully pause and do this.
What is call HR and ensure safety?