“How would you describe Brad’s style?” Paul asked.
“He treats people as equals. He doesn’t assume that he always has the answers, and he’s open to suggestions if his team members think they have a good suggestion or innovation to propose. He’s described as open, warm, and friendly. It’s probably due to him that we have the friendly collegial atmosphere that we have here. At the same time, you can’t get away with anything like slacking off or quality mistakes if you’re a member of his team. Brad really works to develop a team mentality where everyone is in it together and not out for their own personal achievements at the expense of the group. If someone has a problem on Brad’s team, they generally turn to the whole group to ask for input and not just assume that Brad will solve it. Frequent communicator, positive, team-oriented,” Tom concluded.
“In hindsight, is Jared able to identify any time when he had a feeling or intuition that something might be going wrong? And is the team able to look at a specific example and point out why they felt like they weren’t being taken seriously or being listened to?” Paul asked.
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Tom admitted. “Maybe we can ask the employees to share more specific examples. And that’s a good action for Jared, too.”
“Have there been any other performance-related concerns with Jared or his team?” Paul inquired.
“The thing is, I can’t emphasize enough that Jared is a very smart individual. He’s always in my office sharing progress on the team’s work, he knows the content of the job really well, and he always has an answer to every question. I have a great deal of respect for his knowledge and expertise. That’s why I hired him. But now that you mention it, there is another unusual situation we had. It’s not a performance concern, but there was another situation. There was a big problem with three of our suppliers that took everyone’s work to address. After the team got the supplier back on track and quality concerns diminished, Jared took the three employees who were assigned to those suppliers out to lunch to celebrate their success. It caused some hurt feelings among other members of the team because it was widely recognized that everyone participated on the project, not just those that were assigned to the supplier,” Tom said. “Jared told me later that he wanted to hold up those three as role models in working with their suppliers. And then there are the gifts.”
“Gifts?” Paul asked, puzzled.
“Around the holidays, Jared’s team started giving him gifts. They started out as nominal sorts of things like pen and pencil sets or a desk clock,” Tom said. “Then someone gave him a generous gift card, another gave him a new briefcase, and another gave him an expensive bottle of wine. It turned into some kind of competition. Jared pointed to that as an example of his good relationship with the team, but we finally had to ask employees to stop. It’s strange because we don’t usually share gifts like that here. It’s never happened,” Tom said.
“That really sounds like an odd situation. Why would employees give lavish gifts to a manager they reportedly dislike?” Paul wondered.
“Agreed. When I asked them about it, they said they felt obligated and actually complained about that, too. But I can’t figure out how they would feel obligated when no employees across any of my other groups have ever given a gift to a manager. I don’t really want to open up that whole gift situation again with employees, but I mention it just as background. You see how confused I am,” Tom stated, exasperated. “My gut feeling is that there is some element of truth on both sides or some kind of deep misunderstanding. I need your help figuring out what that is and what to do about it.”
“Let’s start with Jared,” Paul said.
Meeting With Jared
“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
