Quit Complaining
One of our former employees would often say to me “Mark… you know what your problem is? YOU HAVE NO CHARISMA!!!”. Why? Well, you’ve read my blog. I’m not exactly Dale Carnegie. In fact, Jim Moore has been known to say “Mark, you’re the only person Dale Carnegie would punch”.
One of the founders of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher has long been touted as an incredibly charismatic leader. He managed not only to convince governments to allow his struggling airline to get off the ground, but (far more importantly), he managed to convince an entire team of people working for him to do everything they could to get that airline off the ground, despite the fact that they were literally grounded.
So what’s my point? Yes, you saw it coming, I’m going to compare myself to Herb. One of the often touted examples of Herb’s character is his willingness to listen to his employees. But in reading The Southwest Airlines Way, I read an interesting quote from one of the pilots: ‘…You don’t just call and say there’s a problem. He’ll say “think about it and tell me the solution that you think will work”…’ And this is exactly what I do… only I say “Quit your damn complaining. Come to me with a solution!” And that is my advice today. Quit complaining. And don’t let people complain to you.
Complaints are downers – no one likes complaints. And no one likes complainers. But it seems people like to complain. Don’t stand for it. If you have a complaint, make sure you have a solution to it. And if someone comes to you with a complaint, challenge them to find the solution.
One other thing – If someone comes to you with a problem, and a solution – figure out how to address the problem. And at least some of the time, use their solution. Far worse than complaining would be to listen to someone’s problem, listen to their solution, and ignore it (and even worse would be to ignore the problem as well). If you do that, not only will they revert to complaining, but they’ll also add a new complaint – that you don’t ever listen.
Are you complaining about complainers?
You’re sending mixed messages. If someone sees a problem but can’t think of a solution they should let it be? No, you say challenge them to find a solution. But you also say people shouldn’t come to you unless they already have a solution. So which is it?
As you point out in the last paragraph – it only takes one punch in the face to stop the direct complaining to you.