I think I know the answer but would like to have some others weigh in on a situation I am facing. First a little background:
I'm the interim manager of an inherited team where I was a peer. I've been in the role as interim since January 1 of this year, recently found MT and we are implementing O3's the first week in April. Our organization is a regional office for a state government regulatory agency with 1 manager, 3 directs (working one short right now) and an administrative assistant.
I have one team member who I am getting consistent complaints about: not returning phone calls, not returning e-mails, sloppy performance and I have witnessed bad behavior on the telephone. Using an ill or short tone, negative phrases and unprofessional comments. The previous manager was totally conflict avoidant, knew this behavior was going on but refused to address it directly. Before finding manager tools, I addressed it once (very incorrectly might I add) and it seemed to get better for a day or so but then the direct falls back into those same bad behaviors.
We are implementing O3's in a little over a week, feedback isn't suppose to start for at least 6 weeks and even then it should be positive for a while before adding correcting feedback. My question is what do I do? This behavior is detracting from the professional atmosphere I'm trying to build and convey to our public and internal partners and the complaints keep coming. We even had an instance last week where someone jumped the chain and complained to my bosses. My goal is to correct this behavior on a long term basis but don't feel like it is time to start giving feedback just yet. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Chuck
*Can* it wait?
The guidance on "take it slow" is very good -- I used it myself, and I think I've gotten astonishingly good results as a consequence. However, if you're likely not to be around in 6 weeks if you don't address this head-on Right Now, then clearly the standard guidance won't work for you.
Before you go charging headlong into this, though, consider: how long has this been going on for already? Has it destroyed the company yet? Has anything changed about the behaviour recently that could change the amount of damage it's doing? For myself, whenever I've had the urge to charge in immediately and change things, I've reasoned with myself along the lines of "look, it was like this for (however long) before I came along and it didn't do *that* much damage. It needs fixing, sure, but it won't kill the company if it goes on for another few weeks until I marshall my forces to fix the problem properly". In military terms, it's like manouvering your forces and avoiding a decisive engagement until you've got sufficient advantage to be confident of being able to rout the enemy. Skirmishes do nothing but diminish your forces for no good benefit. Of course, knowing when to commit to battle is the difficult bit...
If you *do* decide that this behaviour is so damaging that it *does* need to be addressed now, well, best of luck to you. I'd be inclined to think that if it's the situation is *that* bad, though, it requires something more than just feedback -- you're already in the ditch, probably lying on the roof and wondering if you've got the number for a tow truck company in your phone. Is there a "tow truck" podcast? <grin>
It might be ok to use the
It might be ok to use the starter / peer feedback variant during the O3 stage of the trinity rollout. Since the peer FB model doesn't depend on on the foundation that the O3 provides (or any role power). I wouldn't think you have anything to lose by trying that approach (steps 2 and 3 of the FB Model with an 'FYI').
"When you are short with a customer they complain -- FYI". Just the facts with a friendly delivery.
Thanks,
George
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