Management case studies
A square peg in a round hole – on paper she was the perfect candidate.....
Whose morale counts? – technically he was a fantastic manager but his team was disillusioned and de-motivate....
A square peg in a round hole
The Programme Assistant had a reputation for being unhelpful and non-communicative, and her overall performance was poor. This was having a direct negative impact on the whole team.
Her role involved constant liaison within and outside the organisation and a wide variety of administrative issues. On paper, she had extensive experience in project administration and finance. She had joined the organisation two years before with good references.
The incoming Programme Director met with her several times to try to identify the root cause of her unsatisfactory performance. It emerged that she was studying for a degree in accountancy at night school and enjoyed working with the administration team, although she seemed quite unaware of their frustrations. She clearly resented however the need to do menial administrative tasks, insisting that her finance skills should enable her to take more responsibility. She also had little interest in liasing with colleagues outside of the small administration team.
In response, the team member was moved into a Finance Assistant role, where she excelled, moving up to a senior position within 2 years.
In a team working exercise some time after the job change, this formerly sullen, unhelpful staff member, sheepishly admitted to being most comfortable ‘working in a box’. Her former Programme Assistant role or responsibilities had been not been well suited to her competencies or personality.
Whose morale counts?
He was an excellent technical manager, hard working, level headed, dedicated and well respected amongst his peers. His team however was disillusioned and de-motivated. Several members had resigned while others were spending more and more time and energy outside the work place. The programme was suffering.
Whilst the staff management problems could be raised during his performance review, they could not be tackled without support as many related to personal attributes or attitudes. There was also the question of the manager’s own morale as he was otherwise doing a very good job.
The solution adopted was coaching, involving regular one-to-one meetings or telephone calls with a management adviser. As in many such cases, the manager was well aware of his own weaknesses. It was not difficult therefore for the coaching to focus successfully on relevant areas of management capacity building.