Do You Know Diane?
Diane is both the supervisor and project team leader for her group. She is finding it hard to count on one of her employees, Robert. He has a hard time juggling multiple priorities. He gets bogged down to the point where he’s paralyzed and doesn’t know what to do next. He shows up in Diane’s office worked up, but unable to take action.
Diane is as patient as she can be, but her endurance is wearing low. She reminds Robert of the deadlines, and his responsibilities, but that only seems to make things worse. As usual, she ends up picking up the slack. After all, it’s not fair to expect the other employees to cover for Robert.
Having coached hundreds of managers, I find that many times their own motivations (to be a good manager) get in their way, and at the same time these motivations support a breakthrough. (To learn more about how your own motivations as a manager can work for you, get my People Management Personality(tm) assessment here.)
Now Robert is indeed responsible for his performance, but often what a manager like Diane overlooks is that her good intentions, in this case to not burden her team, will build resentment toward Robert. She’s already getting impatient that he’s not “getting it” and now she’s putting in extra hours to pick up the slack.
In fact, this resentment can cloud her thinking as how to get Robert past this block. And she might be tempted to take impulsive action with Robert, when she’s finally hit her limit − when it all could have been averted earlier with some different coaching.
It’s great to have good intentions, and understand where you motivations comes from. At the heart of Diane’s intentions is to not burden others unfairly – that should include herself. In being aware of this, she might have been motivated to find another way to get through to Robert so he could get unblocked. And in this way, she can use the approach that comes naturally to her to make room for other possibilities.
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Good lord I think I’ve found my long lost sister! Robert may be simply the right guy for the wrong job. Expecting more results from one not capable (even with the best coaching) of achieving success is definately no fun for either of the subjects. I would look to tunnel in other talent and send ‘ol Bobby on some easier task. Maybe coffee retrieval engineer.
Thanks James. Indeed Robert may be in the wrong job. And sometimes I find that a little more inquiry helps a person get past a block. We don’t even really know yet what’s getting in his way. All we can do right now is make assumptions.