Bob worked for Jack, but they didn’t get on very well, Jack was the Sales and Marketing Director, and Bob had just been taken on as a Marketing Manager for a small manufacturing company in the Midlands. Jack, in all fairness, didn’t like Bob because he thought he was too cocky. I suppose that Bob could be fairly annoying, but he was pretty good at his job.
The company decided that they wanted to work towards a recognised quality standard and sent a mail through the business asking for volunteers to form a team. “Ideally”, the note said, “we would like one person to represent each department.”
Bob thought this was perfect as at his previous job he had sat on a Total Quality Management team and his previous company had recently been recognised by the standards authority. Whilst he didn’t think that he knew everything there was to know about quality standards, he was fairly sure that he would be able to make a substantial contribution, and he wanted to show Jack that he was more trousers than mouth. He replied to the email volunteering for a seat on the team, and went to see Jack to lay out his proposal.
Pretty soon an email was sent out to the entire business detailing the names of those that would sit on the team and Bob was a little dismayed that his name was not on it. In fact as he scanned the page for the names of those who would make up the team, he noticed that a couple of departments were represented twice and there was no one from marketing.
Swallowing his anger he chatted idly to one or two people who were scheduled to sit on the team and was even more surprised to find out that they had been press ganged into the team by Jack. Furthermore, they didn’t see the point in this nonsense recognition and they were too busy to give it any of their time.
Bob decided to help out anyway and after talking with his two colleagues he wrote an introduction to the quality team, making specific references to each department and listing a number of issues that he thought would be good to start investigating. He illustrated the presentation with a number of models that he had used in his previous role and spent quite a bit of time putting the whole thing together. He printed copies out and bound them, put the presentation on a dozen USB sticks and mailed it to his two colleagues suggesting that they might want to present it at the first meeting. Bob felt happy with his initiative and was confident that Jack would not only see that he had something to contribute but that he deserved a permanent place on the quality team.
On the morning of the first meeting Bob made himself busy in the office by the boardroom where the quality team sat. If he was being completely honest he was waiting for someone to come out of the meeting clutching one of the print outs apologising for the error of not inviting him to join the team in the first place. Time marched on and his frustration grew, especially as he heard laughter and chatter coming through the door.
When the meeting eventually broke up and they came out Jack walked straight over to Bob and asked him about the two projects that Bob had been working on and were due at the end of the week.
Bob sullenly replied that he was a bit behind, but was confident that he would deliver on time.
“You’d be on schedule if you didn’t waste time on crap like this.” Jack said, putting Bob’s presentation in the bin at Bob’s feet before walking off.
Now ask yourself a question. Are you Bob or Jack in this scenario?
There are many times when we feel that we have something to offer and are overlooked, but what can we, in fact what should we do about it? Bob’s priorities were all over the place because his need for recognition and validation overwhelmed his passion for his day to day job. He was so caught up in proving to his unresponsive boss that he had something to add to the quality team that he neglected the day to day needs of running the business. Yes he would probably put in a handful of long days and nights to get the two projects back on track, but think about it, he is the sort of guy that would then stand at the water cooler telling everyone about how dedicated he is and how little Jack appreciated his work.
On the other hand, Jack may well be trying to recognise other people within the organisation by appointing them to the quality team, but his communication to others seems to be lacking somewhat. Ignoring the fierce put down at the end at the moment, if he had taken Bob to one side and told him that he recognised the potential for Bob’s involvement but that the two projects he was working on were a priority they would both have reached an understanding. As it is collaboration wasn’t possible because of the secret compromise that Bob had worked towards. Also consider who else within the organisation felt equally as passionate about joining the team.
Good Leadership is about understanding where the business is and where it is going, but equally important it is about communicating that to the organisation as a whole and to individuals. Recognition works in two ways, it can be used to encourage individuals within your team, but just as powerful is an absence of recognition which will deflate anybody’s self worth.
Leadership and Communication are intrinsically linked, you simply cannot have one without the other.
MD
infinite pie
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