Challenges at work place – Managers Dilemma

“ I can't work with that Swine. X is Swine.” These words were forwarded to  Rachael who had recently joined an organization which had crazy boss and the team was highly demotivated.  For a minute she was awestruck because not only she was shocked to read those lines but was surprised that how someone can write such lines for a colleague. She thought “from” must be junior or a fresher  and doesn’t know much about business communication but she was amazed to find out that “from” was part of the senior management and a very close friend of COO. The fact that he was writing this mail to one of his juniors and by mistake he sent to x person ( sometimes it does happen that we send to the wrong person about whom we are writing instead of the right recipient). Now x person  reported to Rachael and complained to her that he has raised this issue many times with Rachael’s boss but he has not yet taken any action. Hence he was asking for her help.  Rachael decided to discuss with her boss but got the same old reply that “from” is senior person and it's already been highlighted to MD but MD has decided not to take any action on same. Since its sensitive issue and Rachael's boss is handling it she should be out of this. So for Rachael it was a tough decision as Boss is saying to stay away and here is a colleague who is looking at her with hope that she will help him getting justice.  So it was an ethical question for Rachael… She did which she always do when she is stuck in such dilemma’s. She asked herself what is right… and she got the answer that “from” is wrong and he has to apologize…. Rachael raised the issue in a forum and “from” had to apologize but that apology was not from the heart but for the sake of it….. So here the question is  -

When business leaders make mistakes , should they apologize ?

 Traditional thinking says they  can’t afford to, because by doing so is an admission of guilt that can go against them in the future. However an emerging school of thought says that apologizing isn’t as risky as previously believed. It's better to apologize and set up an example that apologizing doesn’t make one small and create culture in the organization that anyone who makes the mistake will have to apologize… No matter which position the person holds. Ethics are the accepted principles of conduct that govern behavior within the society. Put another way ethical principles define the boundary between right and wrong. For me its knowing the difference between what you have “right” to do and what is right thing to do. To make the right choices as a business communicator you have responsibility to think through not only what you say but also the consequences of saying it. Ethical behavior is a companywide concern, of course but because communication efforts are the public face of a company, they are subjected to rigorous scrutiny from regulators, legislators, investors, consumer groups, environmental groups, labour organizations and anyone else effected by business activities.

Lets come back to Rachael… The other problem she faced was that team was highly demotivated so she decided to figure out the issue by simple method .. by doing “Root cause analysis”. She knew the symptoms of demotivation in the team were – Negativity, Dislike of each other, No team bonding, Keeping to oneself, ego, arrogance, immaturity. She could have easily erased these symptoms by doing small activities like team outing, appreciating the team, asking HR help and getting the training organized for the team members but she chose not to do so because simply by removing the symptoms the chances of reappearing the symptoms are much higher. (Its like fixing the bug temporarily and bug reappearing every financial year. Therefore its very important to fix the bug from the root. )

Hence she decided to get into the root cause of the issue.   She asked 3 questions to herself

1.       Factors- What had led to this situation

2.       Reason - Why it happened

3.       Solution - What to do so that it doesn’t arise again

Hmm…  It was a tough task. She decided to make problem chart. Problem with higher management ( including her boss), Problem with group as whole ( colleagues of different department), Problem with oneself.

Well she could figure out that all the 3 areas defined above were the root cause of the problem and being in the position she was in, she decided to let it go or leave it to the way it is as there is an intelligent saying “ Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control. “ And Rachael didn’t have any control. She didn’t wish to take control but wished that her seniors could take control of the situation. Even if she would have tried to control she was sure that she would have failed because strategy is successful only when executed from top to bottom not the other way round. When we suffer from myopia its better to get it operated rather than putting eye solution, as short term solution will lead to blurred vision and eventually will lead to blindness.

* Image credit = Creative commons