Employee Development
Overview & Challenge(s):
At one of my recent employers, "Employee A" had developed a negative internal brand identity, causing others to avoid working with her. Within my first week of employment, I received excessive feedback that, because she was difficult, negative, and always responded to new requests with a "sky is falling" demeanor, she should be fired.
When taking over a new team with individuals who have been identified as a risk, I let my peers and leadership know that while I value and respect their feedback, I will observe for myself what is happening and make adjustments from there. In this case, it was not a popular response but was critically necessary because there had been no prior performance documentation.
Goal(s): Develop a plan of action for either improving the situation or moving to a performance improvement plan.
Strategy & Approach:
Observe the work to understand what was causing the behavior, build credibility and trust, and tactfully share the feedback to get a sense of her appetite for change.
For each complaint I received, I requested that the functional leader provide me with written documentation.
Because this individual was a creative leader, find a way for her to visualize herself changing her reactions.
As a visual, we chose to use her trash can, located on the left side of her desk, as a representation of "the sky is falling".
We discussed that it can take as many as 25 attempts to develop a new habit and because she was left-handed, moving her trash can to the right side of her desk would represent "everything is solvable".
Make myself available as her first line of defense when feeling overwhelmed with work.
Attend creative discussions and reviews to evaluate how other teams may be impacting the situation.
Results:
By using a visualization technique, within three weeks, she made significant improvements to her behavior.
I began receiving unsolicited feedback asking what I had done because she had become absolutely fantastic to work with and internal stakeholders wanted her as their creative lead.
She began coming to me immediately if she was feeling overwhelmed so that we could evaluate the programs and campaigns to make adjustments or find support to ensure dates weren't missed. After we resolved these situations, she communicated the updates across teams, which immediately improved her story.
I transitioned the sourcing, hiring, and management of contract and freelance resources to her, solidifying her ability to performant in a leadership role.
During her annual performance review, she was promoted and I was able to give her a 10% salary increase and her first bonus award.