Читать книгу Organization Development - Donald L. Anderson - Страница 30

“Hi Jared, I’m Paul.” Paul introduced himself and sat down at the table in Jared’s office.

“I can’t thank you enough for your time on this project,” Jared said. “I am really hoping that you can help me understand how I can improve my relationships on this team and my management skills.”

“I’m glad to help,” Paul said. “I’d like to learn a little more about your transition to leading this team and how that went from your perspective.”

“Absolutely. I have worked for the company for the past five years but only for the past six months on this team. I transferred from our east coast office to take over for Brad after his promotion,” Jared said. “When I began, my first order of business was to improve productivity on the team. I took a look at the projects per employee as well as the weekly hours spent per employee with suppliers. Both of those were significant metrics for me to look at, and both were about 20% lower than I would have expected based on my experience. In my first few weeks, I had a meeting with the team where I asked them to identify initiatives that would help us improve our numbers. We came up with four initiatives as a group, and we chose project teams and team leaders for each initiative. Employees volunteered for the initiatives, and I have always said that the team owns them.”

“Tell me how those initiatives have been progressing,” Paul asked.

“I believe in empowering the team and giving them the authority to make decisions,” Jared explained. “I asked them to come up with timelines, milestones, and deliverables, and for each project, we have a weekly review with me and the team. I’ll admit that I did push them on some of the timelines, but in general, the whole team is doing incredible work. Our numbers are already up from the initial baselines.”

“How do you see morale on the team right now?” Paul asked.

“It’s not where I want it to be, but that is to be expected in the middle of a transition. That’s why I’ve already started a recognition program to thank employees for reaching major milestones. I take the supplier leads out to lunch when they reach a level of quality that I’ve publicized to everyone. As a manager, my style is to push hard to accomplish our team objectives but to then recognize people when they succeed. Too many leaders just push people to get the work done but forget to say thank you, and any time you are trying to promote a change, it’s important to celebrate the small wins,” Jared said. “You asked me to think of specific examples of where misunderstanding could have occurred. I think my first attempt at recognition may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but when other team members reach their milestones, I will recognize them, too. It will take time for everyone to buy in to the change.”

“Tell me about team meetings and how you interact with the team,” Paul inquired.

“I think our team meetings are very productive. It’s a light atmosphere, we joke around, and yet we also get the work done. I have regular one-on-one meetings each week with each member of the team, and these are really their time to bring up personal concerns, get career advice or coaching, or get feedback. I’m a strong believer in constructive feedback and coaching. A manager should praise in public and critique in private, so if I have direct feedback about an area that is an opportunity for improvement for someone on the team, I will wait to tell them that in a private setting,” Jared explained. “I also try to coach employees as much as I can. I want them to know that they are in charge of their own careers, and I can help them grow their skills and experience so when they are ready to tackle the next challenge in their careers, they can set themselves apart.”

“I have heard from Tom about some of the feedback the team has had, but I’d like to hear your perspective on that as well. Can you share with me what you have heard and what you think needs to be done?” Paul asked.

“Some of the complaints are about the workload and how strapped people are for time. I get that. I’m not entirely going to apologize for trying to push the team a little, but I also work hard to find additional resources when I can. So when someone is having trouble on a project, I try to create an environment where people want to help each other out. A great example of that comes from a recent meeting with Beth. She was struggling with her workload, so I asked other team members to jump in. Collaboration across a team is one of the most important factors in a team’s success, and I believe that we succeed as a team or fail as a team,” Jared said.

“Have you taken any action so far?” Paul asked.

“Yes. One comment Tom shared was that people felt like I was not recognizing the fact that they were skilled professionals. Recently I wanted to commend a real superstar on the team, Nadia. She had done an exceptional supplier review that caught a number of errors that would have been very upsetting to our customers. I sent a note to the team to showcase Nadia’s work so that everyone would know of the importance of conducting high-quality reviews and how thorough she was,” Jared noted.

“What needs to be done, in your view?” Paul concluded.

“I am at a loss. But I will commit to listening to every piece of feedback that I need to hear, and to doing what is needed,” Jared said firmly. “I have no doubt that we all probably need to take action, and I want everyone to know that they can give me any direct feedback that they want. No one but Tom has mentioned anything to me directly, so I hope you can help.”

“I’m going to talk to the team next, and then I will be better prepared to share specific thoughts with you about our next steps,” Paul said.