Page 223 - Make Work Great

Leading Your Crystal

“After all,” you may argue, “it’s my function as manager (team
leader, advisor, and so on) to advise others, set expectations, and
encourage and reward performance relative to those expectations.”
True enough, but you must be very specifi c with yourself about what
happens when you set an expectation—such as instructing everyone
to craft a summary outputs list—and someone fails to fulfi ll it. What
is your response to the person who laughs off your novel and adamant
insistence on the adoption of new cultural patterns? What about the
person who calls it “just another program du jour” or “the latest in
the string of useless books you’re reading”? You may well be tempted
to set that person straight, to put him in his place. You may sense that
it’s time to “show everyone who’s boss.” If someone pushes just the
right button, you’ll face that temptation head-on.
Depending on your status and role in the organization, you may
also be well positioned for the challenge. Maybe you have direct
authority over the troublesome person in question and can make all
the right negative words show up on his next formal performance
review. Or perhaps you have a good relationship with someone much
higher in the organization and can, with a well-placed comment,
encourage all the weight of that position to come cascading down on
the thorn in your side. You’ll make him see the error of his ways, and
in the process, you’ll show everyone else that you’re not to be trifl ed
with. The problem in taking this approach is that you’ll also become
the persecutor whom nobody trusts and with whom no one wants to
share information. All the work you’ve put into role-modeling new
patterns will go out the window, along with your reputation for fair-
ness and equanimity.
Don’t be afraid to redirect a challenge to your new patterns rather
than engage. If you have true confi dence in what you’re doing, contin-
ued role-modeling will either bring your problematic colleague around
or make his objections irrelevant as he is wrapped in the new patterns
by everyone else in your crystalline network. Verbalize and acknowl-
edge your differences of opinion, and use your patterns of overtness
and clarity in your discussions about expectations. Whatever you do,
never cease to be respectful of the other person: “Obviously, you and

202