Everybody loves Khun Pramet - at first sight.
He is really smart and he is really friendly. Those attributes clearly helped him to rise fast, to his position of quality and engineering manager in a company supplying accessories to car manufacturers. The business has been doing well and was bought a year ago by a large multinational.
In 2010, Pramet was entrusted with two large projects: working out the technical part of an investment in capacity expansion, and preparing the company for its first quality audit by its new owner. Things went wrongâ?¦
Pramet is very relaxed at work - but quite busy outside, as he runs a lucrative family business in rubber. He only started to focus seriously on his two large projects a few weeks before their deadlines. Well before, his fellow managers had become concerned that he was not preparing adequately, and had sent him soft, indirect messages hinting that he should really get started. Pramet did not seem to get the point. Nor, it seemed, did he want to.
When the situation became critical, all his peers had to jump in to rescue both projects - a nightmarish extra workload. Still, none of them expressed dissatisfaction with their too easy-going colleague. The outcome was far from great: the first submission of the investment proposal was rejected for lack of reliability in technical assumptions, and the audit identified several nonconformities in Pramet's own "quality department".
The nightmare is far from over, because Pramet is still comfortably enjoying his position, with apparently blind support from his boss. What damage will be inflicted on the company's image next? When will Pramet overburden his peers again because of his carelessness? We can expect the worst, because problems that remain unsolved have an unpleasant habit of growing bigger over time.
One of Pramet's close colleagues is a friend of mine. I asked him candidly: "why didn't anyone send 'wake-up calls" to him that were strong enough?" My friend gave the usual "for the sake of the relationship" reply.
Isn't the cost of preserving that so-called"relationship" just way too high in this case? Why do Pramet's colleagues prefer to maintain superficial harmony rather than confronting him and helping him to improve, if they really care about him?
Some faint-hearted colleagues might shy away from confrontation for fear of hurting the other's self esteem, of emotional outbursts, or retaliation. But avoiding confrontation will probably produce the whole unpleasant situation again at a later date, and on a much bigger scale.
"Tough love" is a greater gift than the silent, self sacrificing preservation of a superficial relationship. Reading "Fierce Conversations", authored by Susan Scott, will provide you with an easy "how to" guide for "effective feedback in 60 seconds".
--Here are the steps:
1. Name the problem
2. Illustrate it with one or two specific examples
3. Describe your emotions on the issue
4. Clarify what is at stake
5. Identify your contribution to the problem (even if minimal)
6. Indicate your wish to resolve the issue
7. Ask "what help do you need?"
8. Invite your partner to respond
9. Inquire into your partner's views
10. Identify conditions for resolution
11. Make an agreement and determine how you will hold each other accountable for keeping it.
Steps 3 and 5 are particularly important, as they have a very positive psychological influence on the receiver of your feedback.
For Pramet, the "60 seconds' feedback" could start like this:
"Khun Pramet, I want to talk with you about your past habit of starting projects late, and how it affects the team and the company. You and all the rest of us could have scored better at the Quality Audit, if you had kicked off your preparations earlier. And the company's image would have been improved if the capacity-expansion proposal had been technically solid in its first submission.
"I feel worried that we might have similar troubles in the future.There is a lot at stake: our image as a management team, and the motivation of our people, who are exhausted by repeated last-minute rushes.
"My responsibility in this situation is that I did not tell you earlier about my growing concern. We are in this together and I want you and me to find a way to improve things. I want to know how I can help.How do you think we can improve things, going forward?"
Such feedback surely takes a bit of courage. Yet, isn't the reward for Pramet, his colleagues and the company very much worth it?
Your reactions are most welcome at info@1-2-win.net.
Jean-Francois Cousin leads 1-2-WIN Executive Coaching (www.1-2-win.net). He is a former managing director.
