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Reform or Remove - the Leader's Duty

May 22, 2014

Blog Topic

The in-house architect was important to the success of the development project. She was talented, creative yet pragmatic and realistic in her technical design output. The leadership valued her work highly.

But she was painful to work with. She was never wrong - in her opinion. She was rude, even brutal in her criticism of others. She wasn't a team player.

Her manager spent a great deal of time smoothing over her transgressions, placating the offended team members.

However many still left. Those that didn't leave became disengaged. The project fell behind.

Then the manager was relocated to another part of the business, partly due to him being blamed for the drop in progress.

The new manager spent two weeks becoming familiar with the working of the team.

Then he asked the architect out for a coffee.

He laid out the following for her:

  • We value your work and your talent.
  • We would like you to remain as a part of the team and progress in the business.
  • For that to happen you'll need to achieve two things that I believe you are very capable of:
    • Become respectful in your dealings with others, no matter what;
    • Become a true team player.
  • If you don't achieve that within the next two months, I'll have to let you go.
  • I will help you to be successful, but it is up to you.
  • How do you feel about that?

The architect, after some questions and answers, realised the manager was committed and agreed.

She reformed and stayed.

The project got back on track but had cost much more than they had planned.

The previous manager was let go when his new team fell behind.

The senior leadership realised they needed to reinforce the leaders' duty to cause reform or removal.

What do you think about that duty?

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