Last Week's Dilemma, Resolved
Last week, in "Firing the Boss's Pet," we explored Cleo's dilemma of how to handle an under-performing employee who was a family friend of the CEO's. In real life, Cleo's issue was one of courage, not performance management. Cleo really feared for her job if she dealt with this employee the way she would have anyone else. And, the employee knew it. I told her "You cannot lead from fear. Someone will always hold you hostage if you do." After a lot of thinking, rehearsing, and a long, sleepless night, Cleo realized that this was her "moment of truth." If she didn't speak up, it would violate her personal values. Following their morning meetings, Cleo asked for a private conversation with the CEO and shared her concerns, including several examples of what was happening in the office. Then she said "I realize I just put my job on the line." He replied "The job I hired you to do is build strong performance in your branch. I expect you to lead and manage your people, and deal with "Brenda" the way you would any under-performing employee." There is more to the after-math, but now Cleo is back in the driver's seat, and winning performance is the top priority in the office.
Priorities in a Vise Grip
7:00 PM. Cliff shut down the computer and stood up. Just another typical day: At the end of 12 hours his mind was spinning with the hard work, the unfinished business and the shell game of attending to so many projects. A game of pick-me-up basketball with colleagues was just what the doctor ordered.
Afterwards in the locker room, he got another dose of sweat: His bosses’ boss Mark started grilling him about the flailing product line, “Robust.” Amidst increasing pressure for the division to perform and an impending sale of the company in 12 months, Cliff could read between the lines: Mark’s reputation was on the line. He stood to be a hero or a has-been, depending on how Robust performed. Cliff saw a chance to seize an opportunity and ride the hero’s coattails … or be political road kill.
Which all depended on HIS boss, Pete.
Pete had buried Cliff under 10 other priorities, which would make it impossible to support the needed results on Robust. But Pete’s boss had sidestepped him and gone directly to Cliff for a reason: He didn’t feel Pete “got” the urgency factor on Robust. Cliff was caught in a vise: Squeezed on competing priorities in an over-lean operation, between two leaders who weren’t aligned. He knew he had to play his cards carefully.
How could Cliff get his boss (Pete) to re-prioritize his work, work with Mark and others to accelerate Robust results in a way that didn’t threaten Pete, create a home run for the division, and increase his chances for long-awaited promotion?
What would a leader do? Post your comments.
Stay tuned for "how it turned out" in next week's Cliffhanger entry.
Interested in more scenarios Jackson & Schmidt works with? Check out http://www.jacksonandschmidt.com/mostpopular.html
