This year however, has been a real challenge for managing expectations and the challenge hasn't been from the kids at all but instead from a new supervisor at work. I drive a tractor trailer for the number one, less than truckload company (LTL) in the world of the red, white, and purple variety not brown. I say this only to protect myself from self-incrimination as I do not wish to manage my wife's expectations in the form of trying to find another paycheck every week from somewhere else but I digress, that is a different story. The issue I/we have with the new dispatch expectations is that his expectations of time and distance and the mode of transportation used i.e. a tractor trailer combination vehicle are unrealistic. Unrealistic in the way that one might think a trip from Los Angeles to New York City should take about an hour. Or the time it should take to go grocery shopping on the weekend with one cashier open should be just a few minutes. He seems to have the idea that these behemoths of the highway can do anything fast at all; they can't accelerate fast nor brake fast and certainly can't navigate the city streets any faster than say a bus. Yet his expectation is to be able to whiz around, make all stops and offload quicker than the next one with plenty of time to spare. We're not talking about driving a Civic and we definitely now have a conflict.
I think Fiedler's Contingency Theory would be a good fit here when describing this sort of leader-member conflict and the issues surrounding the new dispatch supervisor. Contingency Theory has to do with the style of the leader as well as a given situation. (Northouse p. 123) In my case, the leader has unrealistic expectations with respect to time and distance allotments when picking up and delivering freight. While his task motivated behaviors are appropriate in that the timely, efficient, and damage free movement of freight is a reasonable goal, the relationship aspect of this exchange is suffering. (Northouse p.124) There is another factor which should be shared in this situation and that is the new supervisor has never worked in this industry before and it is his first job with this kind of responsibility. There's the missing link between the driver and dispatch connection. He doesn't understand the situational factors involved therefore cannot dispatch accurately which leads to frustration on his part and quite frankly anger on ours. As the text points out, contingency theory says that certain leadership styles are more effective in certain situations (Northouse p.125) and I feel that this supervisor's current aggressive style would be better served in a capacity where speed could be improved upon such as on the dock loading trailers or cutting down on chit-chat. The power of the dispatch supervisor is not in question but the legitimacy of it has been limited due to the fact that he is "brand new" and comes off arrogant which is one of the reasons why I think so many disregard his demands.
All in all, it is leadership in the making and I'm more interested in him pulling back a little over him finding his new management/leadership style that works. I suppose in some ways my own reaction and behavior when it comes to carrying out dispatch instructions is the way I manage expectations which is not easy to do especially now where the long hours, grumpy workers, grumpy supervisors, grumpy customers are exactly what you'd expect during the happiest time of the year.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). "Leadership: Theory and Practice." Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Origin: dating-for-black-men.blogspot.com
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