2 sides. Always.

There are always 2 sides to a story.  Consider this scenario –

Supervisor : “She is so confused and can’t follow direction.  I say the same thing over and over.”

Associate: “Every time I suggest a new way to do things I get a no; I get slammed down.  The way we do things is ridiculous.”

There’s validity in each of their comments, but somewhere in the middle is the truth that you need to focus on.  In this scenario, the supervisor was closed to new ideas and the associate was closed to trying the existing methods.  Working with them, it became apparent that the associate was far less flexible than the supervisor so we had to make a difficult decision and let her go.  But her points were right on, the processes did need to evolve.  The situation forced the supervisor to acknowledge how closed she had been which also gave her the opportunity to see how open to ideas she could be.  She had the ability to look at herself honestly and openly and learn from her own mistakes which were leading to her to being counseled out.  She paid attention, worked hard and became an effective an integral part of the team.