The Situation: –How to get results without taking prisoners.
Jamie was very effective in her previous role. Promoted to a new job, she has been asked to be a liaison for her new manager. She is to attend meetings to help rally the masses as well as assist in making the best decisions on matters when needed. The opportunity for Jamie is to help move her from an operations slot into a more nuanced role in communicating effectively both with her peers and the C Suite. She is also to be the face of the group.
The Solution:/Action Plan
Jamie was videotaped several times so she could see her facial expressions and body language. The idea was to get her to soften her tone of voice and relax her body language. Jamie also took several assessments aimed at adapting her communication style to those different from hers.
She began to ask questions to get folks to look at other points of view, only taking the hard line approach as a last resort. Jamie also set aside an hour a week to communicate with her manager on the good and bad of weekly issues. The point was for her to learn from the bad situations and give her a star for the situations that everyone felt it was a win/win.
The Outcome:
Jamie is now viewed as a senior manager who everyone wants to work with. Her manager has complete confidence in sending Jamie to meetings when she cannot attend. Jamie now attends meetings with the COO along with her manager where previously Jamie had not attended any senior leader meetings. Her manager feels Jamie is a contender to replace her in the future.
Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. Dwight D. Eisenhower