老闆們看下屬不順眼怎麼辦?大綱

As managers, we tend to like to work with people who agree with us, who are easy to work with, who don’t directly challenge us. While this is natural, it’s not always optimal. The path of least resistance isn’t always the path to most productivity.

作爲管理者，我們往往都喜歡與這一類人共事：意見一致、易於相處以及不會直接和我們叫板。雖然喜歡這種人是很自然的事情，但並這不總是一種最理想的狀態。阻力最小，成效卻並不總是最高。

This line of thinking was brought to mind recently when I retweeted a brief Harvard Business Review Management Tip on “ How to Manage Someone You Don’t Like, ” describing concisely the need to keep in check your own frustrations and biases when managing in such circumstances. (It was based on a longer article of the same title from this August by HBR Contributing Editor Amy Gallo.)

最近，這種思路讓我回想起我在推特上轉發的《哈佛商業評論》（Harvard Business Review）“看下屬不順眼怎麼辦（How to Manage Someone You Don’t Like）”一文的摘要，這篇文章簡要介紹了在這種情況下進行管理時，剋制你個人的沮喪和偏見的必要性。（這篇文章根據《哈佛商業評論》特約編輯艾米·蓋洛今年8月發表的一篇篇幅較長的同名文章撰寫。）

I had a quick inkling this was a resonant subject, as within a minute of my HBR tip tweet, I received a tweet back from a manager in Lagos, Nigeria: “this is nice becoz it will improve the quality of our leadership.”

我迅速從中看出點端倪，這是一個能夠引起共鳴的話題，在我剛剛發出推文不到一分鐘，我便收到來自尼日利亞首都拉各斯（Lagos）的一位經理的推特消息：“非常不錯，因爲它將提高我們的領導素質。”

Hard to argue with that… and it made me think about my own experiences in this realm over several decades of management. First off, I’d say there were very few people out of all those I’d managed whom I could really say I didn’t like. Full disclosure: I’m by nature a consensus-builder, tend to get along with people, not seek conflict. I’ve always loved team sports, big believer in the power of teams in business, feel little of substance is accomplished in a large organization without complex collaboration. But that said, notice I still said very few people I didn’t like, not none. Accordingly, my modest contribution to the management topic of liking and disliking and dealing with it.

很難反駁這種說法……它使我回想起我在這個領域幾十年的管理經驗。首先，我想說在我管理的所有人當中，我看不順眼的人真的寥寥無幾。完整披露：我本身是一個共識構建者，很容易跟他人相處，不會沒事找事。我一直都喜歡團隊體育運動，並相信企業中團隊的力量，我認爲如果在一家大型企業缺少複雜的協作是很難取得實質性成果的。話雖如此，請注意，我還是提到了有極少數人是我看不順眼的，不是沒有。相應地，我對喜歡、不喜歡和如何處理等管理話題發表一點我的看法。

So if you find yourself in this difficult bind – managing someone who’s a capable employee but you’re genuinely not liking – how should you approach it? (It’s important to say “capable employee, ” since if the individual is a weak performer and not liked, odds are his or her stay in the role won’t be a long one.) My suggestions:

那麼，如果你發現自己身處尷尬境地——管理那些有能力但你又確實看不慣的員工時——你應該如何處理呢？（指出是“有能力的員工”很重要，因爲如果這個人能力差，又不招人待見的話，他/她在這裏久待的可能性不大）我的建議是：

Accept it, it’s just human nature, accept the inevitability of interpersonal conflict – Don’t agonize or beat yourself up over it, but assume in the normal course of human events this is a normal occurrence… and look for constructive openings rather than dwelling on negatives.

接受它，這只是人類的天性，接受人際衝突的必然性——不要因爲這個而感到極度痛苦或者自責不已，而是把它看成這是在正常情況下的正常現象……尋求建設性地敞開心胸，而不是糾纏於消極的一面。

Recognize this is business, not pleasure, and drain the emotion out of it – As I used to tell my employees during especially hard and irritating assignments: “Hey, that’s why it’s called work, not play. If it were play, we wouldn’t be getting paid for it.” Remember these are business relationships, not friendships. Even turbulent business relationships can yield business benefits. Compartmentalize.

認識到這是工作，不是休閒，並化解由此帶來的情緒——正如我過去常常對我的員工說的，尤其是在面對艱難和惱人的任務時：“嘿，這就是爲什麼它被稱爲工作，而不是遊戲。如果它是一種遊戲，我們將不會爲此得到報酬！”記住這些就是工作關係，並非友誼。即使是混亂的工作關係也能產生商業利益。要將這些劃分開來。

Try as best you can to see things through the eyes of others – Always a ‘best practice’ in management and life. No one’s perfect; all of us of course have faults. It’s entirely possible some of the fault in a fractured relationship is yours. Might there be aspects of your behavior that are causing an employee to relate to you in persistently frustrating ways? Might such perceptions be legitimate? Indeed possible.

儘可能通過其他人的眼睛來看事情——一直都是管理和生活中的一個“最佳實踐”。人無完人，每個人都有缺點。一段關係的破裂完全有可能是因爲你的一些過失所致。或許是你行爲的某個方面才讓員工一直以令人沮喪的方式與你相處？或許這種看法是合理的？的確是有可能的。

Recognize that creativity and innovation are often byproducts of tension, conflict, stress and agitation – Best for last, this is the most important point, with the most organizational upside. Right, wrong or indifferent, when I reflect back on some of the biggest management-employee conflicts I had (and witnessed), they were generally with the brightest individuals. Who also were the most cantankerous, invested, and ultimately capable of the keenest product and consumer insights. Which generally resulted from considerable discussion, debate and struggle before solutions were found. Was I always happy with the person or the process? No. But was I often pleased with the end results? Unquestionably.

認識到創造力和創新往往是緊張、衝突、壓力和焦慮的副產品——最好的留到最後，這是最重要的一點，對組織具有最多的正面意義。無論對與錯還是中立，在我回顧我所經歷（親眼目睹）的管理層和員工之間爆發的一些最激烈衝突時，發現往往是與最聰明的個人之間發生的。此外，那些人也是脾氣最壞、最受器重、並具有最敏銳的產品和消費者洞察力。而這樣的洞察力，往往源自大量的討論、辯論和爭鬥。我總是對這個人或者這個流程感到滿意嗎？不是。但我對最終結果經常感到滿意嗎？毫無疑問。

Not all difficult people are talented, and as a manager you want to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and not squander your finite mental energy unnecessarily. But some of the most talented people I ever met in business were also the most difficult. They contributed a great deal in terms of creativity and critical thinking.

並非所有難相處的人都才華橫溢，作爲一個經理，你希望能夠甄別優劣，而不要將你有限的精力浪費在不必要的地方。不過，我在商界見過的最有天賦的人當中，其中一些人也是最難打交道的。他們對創造力和批判性思維做出了很大的貢獻。

They weren’t easy, but the road easiest traveled doesn’t always get you where you most need to go.

他們雖不易相處，但是不費吹灰之力走過的那條路並不總會把你帶到你最需要去的地方。