Page 24 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

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Introduction

I spent the first part of the morning visiting the office plants
and staff. The plants seemed livelier than the day before. I could
not say the same of my colleagues. I had brought in my laptop
and replied to e-mails and read the news. When John checked
“In” at 10:30, I felt an incredible sense of relief. He greeted me
enthusiastically and congratulated me on finding my desk. I
twitched as I realized that the bar was even lower than I had
imagined. He told me that he had a great idea; he was taking me
shopping to get office supplies for my desk. I assured him that I
had plenty of well-sharpened pencils.
We retuned an hour later with several bags of supplies—
almost all of which I knew to be well organized in the stock
room. John suggested that I get my desk outfitted and then
come in to see him. I was so anxious to actually get to work that
I left most of the supplies in their bags and shoved them into
the desk drawers. Five minutes later, I was standing in front of
John’s office; he was on the phone but motioned for me to come
in and sit down. I sat and waited, and waited. I picked up a book
on his coffee table and started reading. He kept holding up his
forefinger and gesturing, “One more minute.” Thirty minutes
later he wrapped up the call and said, “Time for lunch. Come
on, I’m buying.” I smiled at Sherry as I walked by the board and
signed “Out.”
While at lunch, I was able to direct the conversation away
from college basketball long enough to get some direction
regarding my “work.” (It would prove to be the most focused
and informative meeting of my short tenure.) My first and most
important responsibility was to validate the assessment instru-
ment that served as the core business product of the business.
The instrument was marketed as a personality and behavioral
assessment that could predict employee performance and was
being used by several Fortune 500 companies to make hiring,
promotion, and placement decisions.