As a continuation to Monday’s and Wednesday’s posts, I want to provide an example of how intervening with employee issues early can often be a leader’s “silver bullet” solution.
A CEO of a mid-size company was having an issue with the COO. The COO was not effectively leading and mentoring one of his employees so the CEO had to step in and take the time to be a mentor to this individual. This became a topic of one of our coaching conversations because the CEO was taking significant time doing the mentoring that his COO should have been doing. When I asked him why the COO wasn’t doing it, the response was, “he never has and it’s just not one of his strengths.” These two men had been working together in these roles for the past five years and this was an expectation that the CEO had of his COO; yet, it was not happening and the CEO had not ever dealt with it.
Another factor influencing this situation was that the COO was further along in his career stage so more established in his methods of managing others. These methods did not include mentoring; however; this was an expectation of his role. Had he known this many years earlier, it likely would have been easier to amend and deal with as opposed to now, five years later. Effectively amending the situation in a mutually agreeable manner took some dedicated time, planning, and also some shifting of responsibilities between the CEO and COO.
This same CEO was also running into an issue with one of his vice presidents. It was a similar situation in that the vice president was not meeting expectations in a certain area of performance. This was a new situation and one that required immediate attention if it were to be dealt with efficiently. Unlike with the COO, this time the CEO did not ignore the situation but took the “early intervention” approach. Although it required some time and frequent follow-up, it was amended successfully and did not linger. Although these examples are brief, they illustrate that, although each individual situation may require different approaches, the “silver bullet” solution can equate to the timeliness of addressing the situation. Confronting something directly and early on will prevent it from lingering. It will also prevent it from getting bigger than it needs to be. It is the straightforward solution that has extreme effectiveness, or, the “silver bullet”, as described by Wikipedia.
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