“So, what are you going to do differently?” I asked. Cheryl had just received some brutally honest feedback from her team. Rather than become defensive, she was taking it to heart, a really tough move for Cheryl.
“As much as I know that I have things figured out,” she said, “that doesn’t seem to hold water around here.” Cheryl was truly struggling. She knew her team needed to make some changes, but she knew she had to make some changes first.
“So, what are you going to do differently?” I repeated.
“It’s almost like I have to do everything differently. The worst part is, that I can look at a problem and immediately know what to do. But I am going to have to lead my team through the problem solving process to make any headway with them. It just takes so much time.”
“Cheryl, sometimes you have to slow down before you can go fast?”
“I know,” she replied.
“So, what are you going to do differently?”
“First, I am going to have to listen more and talk less.”
“Good. When is your next team meeting?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Let’s meet about a half hour before and talk about how that meeting is going to be different.” -TF
Having read the story, one could question if Cheryl is a leader – does she like what she is doing – or is it a burden ?
She anayway seems to be very qualified in expert skills.
* Interesting Blog (excellent !) – will return and read more.
All the best from Sweden
Timo,
Thanks for the comment. Your assessment of Cheryl is on target. She was hired for her technical skills as a troubleshooter for Quality Control. She is very quick to find the problems and generate solutions, but she is just learning about what it takes to execute that solution.
Hi Tom ~ It’s a cruel game companies play: They require technical excellence in order to be promoted into managerial and leadership positions that require you NOT to use that subject matter expertise!
This is what you see quite often.
An excellent sales man is promoted to become sales manager. It may work, but it may also fail. If you at a certain age have developed your skills and love the things you are doing – as a speciallist or expert, and then start doing something else – like becoming a manager – i question if it can be “trained” into that person to become as successful as a manager as he or she was before in their field of expertice. A manager – in my view – is more concerned in people, their interaction, and the performance of the “team” – and this is quite far away from beeing an expert in a certain technical or administrative field.
Well – it a blog – and this is just another comment..
Friendly greetings from Sweden // Timo