Page 206 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

coerce a response or choice the employee has, or create fear when there wasn’t any by mak-
ing false statements about how much authority you do have. For example, if you don’t have
the authority to fire an employee on your own because it is a decision that must be made
by attorneys or higher-level management, you would not want to tell an employee that you
do have this complete authority in order to create fear of you. There are rarely benefits to
having employees fear you. There are much greater benefits when employees can trust the
HR professional.
Avoid Failing to Use Your Authority When You Need To. If you see or observe inappro-
priate behavior such as put-downs or bullying or harassment, it is your professional and eth-
ical duty to address that behavior. It is probably best to address the behavior with the
offending person in private as quickly as possible. Simply interrupt whatever is happening,
say, “Joe, I’d like to meet with you briefly right now,” and then tell Joe that he has either
violated a policy and what it is and why or that he is very close to violating a policy and
you need him to understand that. It is important to document that you had this discussion
with Joe, and depending on your relationship with Joe and his behavioral history, you might
want to have a witness in the room with you when you speak to him. You may also want
to follow up with an e-mail to Joe, which can serve as documentation of the discussion as
well as a communication with him to ensure that he understands what was said and what
he must change about his behavior. Certainly, Joe’s supervisor should be copied on this
either directly or the e-mail should be forwarded.
It is very important to apply this use of authority consistently. For example, if you
respond this way to Joe, but then you see similar behavior from another employee with
whom you might be friendly or whom you like very much, you still must respond in the
same way. You cannot say to yourself, “Well, that’s just Cindy. She doesn’t mean it in a bad
way, and besides, everyone is laughing.” You have a responsibility to address the behavior
just as you did with Jim or anyone else who might exhibit that behavior.
The EQi and EQ360 are statistically valid emotional intelligence (EI) assessments that
can be taken with someone who is certified in administering them and can be extremely
useful self-awareness tools. With the EQi, you rate yourself on various aspects of EI, such
as empathy, assertion, flexibility, and self-awareness. With the EQ360, you have others rate
you on an almost identical list of qualities. It is helpful to compare one’s self-evaluation to
the average of a group of people who know you well. The wonderful thing about EI is that
unlike our IQ, which does not change too much over the course of our lives, we can further
develop our EQ and improve as long as we focus attention on doing so. See Part Six for def-
initions of EI skills.
Observe the culture of your company and see how others at your level and above han-
dle misunderstandings, conflict, collaboration, anger and other emotions, frustration, and so
on. Unless you see a lot of dysfunctional behavior or their behavior would be uncomfort-
able for you to emulate, do try to handle things as they do, so you assimilate into the com-
pany culture. If you are unable to do that or you feel that the culture is dysfunctional and
needs to change, consider ways that you can handle things differently that won’t be too
threatening for them. Remember to make only small changes at a time; people can have
rather large, unpleasant reactions to big changes, and you don’t want your good intentions
to influence the company culture positively to backfire.

CHAPTER 12 • Make Sure You Are Not Par t of the Problem 189