My last position at a telecommunication company required me to have a lot of interaction with the managers on a daily basis. I was dealing with informal and formal meetings as well as grievances. I believe that having charisma is the most important type of leadership trait to have. Having charisma makes it easier for people to want to deal with you even if it’s the most uncomfortable situation. Charisma doesn’t come easy or overnight. A lot of times, you may have to work on staying calm and understanding when necessary. Management grievance meetings can get very rude and uncomfortable all at once, since the representatives are equal to management during these types of meetings. Both sides may start out being professional, but after some time goes by and nothing it getting resolved, the situation is about to turn in the wrong direction. I normally had to be the mediator between the other managers and the other team leads that was running the meeting it was always one team against another instead of us all coming together as a company and working together to reach a common goal. A lot of times the other team leads would try to control the meeting from the beginning when it’s the manager that has control of it. My type of grievance meetings usually dealt with work performances. Our company always expected satisfactory work and performances and when it wasn’t the case they wanted to know why. We had steps to achieve success and were always willing to work with the employee before we got to the steps of discipline. As being a team lead, I had the option to change someone’s accuracy report at my discretion if it was going to help them keep their job. The managers at times would look down at the employees using their own time if they are sick but if this would help them keep their job they should really consider what is more important. I was confident when I would offer employees options when it comes to their attendance or improving their work.
