The Situation:
A valued employee, Joe, has been with the company for twenty plus years and has been in this management role about two years. He runs several service locations that are critical to the growth and delivery of the products the company provides. The leaders want to keep him happy and hope he could continue to grow as a new manager but none of them ever visit his locations when he is there.
The Solution:
Joe may lack the social skills and people awareness needed to begin building relationships with senior management. One of the senior managers he interacted with was very solutions driven. The other, a very social person, liked to be engaged and even a bit entertained with a meal as part of onsite visits.
The first step was to get Joe into solution based answers related to how the operations could grow by improving some areas of service and production. The second step was to help Joe find a comfort level with the socializer personality, who likes small talk and appreciates the art of doing some business over meals.
This project was a six month engagement with coaching over the phone which included specific tasks Joe needed to complete to help him accomplish two things: Eliminate the fear of a wrong solution and improve his social skills with upper management. The ultimate result, of course, was to strengthen his interactions with senior leadership and get them to visit and help provide assistance for the locations while Joe was present.
The Outcome:
The two senior leaders have seen the growth in Joe. They schedule visits with his locations now. They also try to provide Joe with specific outcomes expected from the visits. Both senior leaders are also more sensitive to timing. Not that all visits need a week or two advance notice for Joe but they were able to reduce the number of visits that occurred with just a few hours’ notice. It is important to set up all parties for success.
A smile is the universal welcome ~Max Eastman