{"id":55,"date":"2015-03-11T17:47:19","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T23:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/?p=55"},"modified":"2015-03-11T21:51:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T03:51:33","slug":"having-an-open-door-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/having-an-open-door-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Having an Open Door Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">When you become a new manager you might want to say to your folks, &#8220;Hey, my door is always open.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Then shoot them a crooked smile with your finger gun.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I know I did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In the spirit of over-thinking everything I went further and posted a formal open-door policy. \u00a0As with many of my ideas, this one started its life in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manager-tools.com\/2007\/01\/how-to-have-an-open-door-policy-part-1-of-2\">Manager Tools Podcast on Open Door Policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p1\">My Door is Open<\/h1>\n<p class=\"p1\">To be more explicit, &#8220;My door is always open to anyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Like\u00a0many\u00a0of you I don&#8217;t <em>have<\/em> a door. I mean that anyone can come to me professionally to discuss anything.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><strong><span class=\"s1\">Policy: My door is always open to anyone<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul2\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Always means always, <\/span><span class=\"s5\"><b>however<\/b><\/span><br \/>\n<b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul2\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Respect my family<\/b>. I may have to defer the conversation if you call during a family event.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Now is NOT necessary<\/b>. I may have to defer the conversation to later in the day.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>I will hear you today<\/b>. Even if I have to defer the conversation, I will make time to speak with you today.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>You may have to schedule it<\/b>. I keep my calendar up-to-date. I may have to ask you to find time on my calendar to set up\u00a0a meeting. When scheduling a meeting include the topic. No blind requests, please.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul class=\"ul2\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>My First Job is to Listen<\/b><\/span>\n<ul class=\"ul2\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>I&#8217;m always an employee and a manager<\/b>: Don&#8217;t expect me to keep relevant information from my manager. If you disclose information that I\u00a0must\u00a0act on then I can not pretend not to know it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>I&#8217;ll always listen<\/b>:\u00a0I promise to hear you out. I want to hear about problems and issues, but you can&#8217;t\u00a0expect me to always solve them on the spot. Hearing your request is not an automatic commitment for action.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>We can meet in private<\/b>: Normally I&#8217;ll just meet in my cube with voices lowered. \u00a0If you want more privacy we can try to find an empty room or you can schedule a room on my calendar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>I will take notes<\/b>: Since you approached me about work I will treat it as a work conversation and take notes.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>My Second Job is to Honor Management<\/b>:<\/span>\n<ul class=\"ul2\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">If you don&#8217;t work for me I will refer you to your manager.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">If you want more developers I will refer you to your program manager and product manager.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">If you want priorities changed I will refer you to your product manager.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">If you convince me your manager is wrong I will still refer you to your manager.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>I will follow-up<\/b>:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul class=\"ul2\">\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">Even though I may refer you to other managers or points of contact, I will still consider the information and take proper action as necessary.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li2\"><span class=\"s1\">If you bring an issue to me I expect you to be prepared to give me updates as the situation changes.\u00a0Please don&#8217;t give me drive-by issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you become a new manager you might want to say to your folks, &#8220;Hey, my door is always open.&#8221; Then shoot them a crooked smile with your finger gun. I know I did. In the spirit of over-thinking everything I went further and posted a formal open-door policy. \u00a0As with many of my ideas,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/having-an-open-door-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Having an Open Door Policy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,11],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-executive","tag-manager-tools","tag-policy","wow fadeInUp","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.managerjs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}