Amit reflected that he seemed to have overlooked some fundamentals, in his exuberance about the new role. Our next set of 60-‐minute sessions, every two weeks, resulted in several such insights and actions that Amit quickly began to take.
Like any diligent business operations professional would do, Amit was armed with formats and processes to gather expectations, draw up action plans and measure success. He had identified some of the actions he would take and the order of priority, key skills required and also the support he would require. This was a great start no doubt.
With this groundwork done, we began another session. Amit acknowledged that his plan was logical and more structured now, than they way he had been approaching his role before.
There were two questions to be answered.
- With a great plan, is success guaranteed?
- Were there any potential barriers in his ability to and these actions effectively?
As he explored these question he had a breakthrough – he considered what he had been doing the past, how he had conducted himself with the business and the results he had been getting.
We did a role-‐play to help him develop a clear insight. Amit assumed the position of one of his key stakeholders, someone he had a good rapport with. He responded to my questions as this person would, talking about how he perceived Amit’s role and contribution.
This was the breakthrough moment -‐ he needed to be more of an influencer. In his own words ‘he was trying too hard to please and possibly playing the role of a paper pusher.’ Harsh words of self-‐assessment, but a strong reflection of his insight.
Suddenly his focus shifted from the formats and plan he had created – he realized that it was not only about what he did, but also how he did it.
Amit’s REALITY: (R)
Amit was ready to explore the different ways he could address these insights, though he admitted to be slightly clueless! His concern was that he had already established a certain image with his stakeholders and changing that perception could be difficult. Would that need to be drastic? How would that play out? How would he make the shift first, before he was able to do anything differently? Is there an order to do this? Would his stakeholders notice he had changed, what if they did not? What if they thought it was a passing phase and did not take him seriously?
Amit was articulating obstacles and doubts. I used these questions to fuel the possible answers and options, attempting to demystify this situation and help him come up with tangible actions. Since he is a logical thinker, we used the same approach to devise an action plan – it seemed to suit him and make him comfortable and own the plan.
Amit’s OPTIONS: (O)
Amit was finally getting excited about his action plan! He felt he had a real chance at making a shift. As we discussed his options and actions, I suggested a visualization exercise to help him cement this resolve. Through this exercise, Amit visualized his meeting with his stakeholder in the business, what he would say, how he felt, the response he would get and how it would end. This exercise resulted in another insight – he had never really prepared for these meetings with the idea of ‘how do you want this to end?’ He discovered that he was being transactional and action oriented, not very outcome oriented.
Amit’s WAY FORWARD: (W)
Managing progress and accountability Over the next few weeks, we met to role-‐play, shadow and debrief and review the progress Amit had made. Once again, being the process oriented person he was, it was not difficult to keep to a schedule of meetings. What seemed to fuel this was that Amit was experiencing success, one step at a time. He was eager to meet and share his insights, sharing his observations of others reactions and seemed like he was enjoying his ‘experiment with himself’. Success breeds success.
3 months later..
Amit’s manager Ram called me again – this was not our scheduled one-‐on-‐one. He said he was coming out of the performance management process review with the global HR leadership team and
I just met a very energetic, objective and ‘hard assessed’ (!) negotiator. You would really enjoy meeting him too, his name is Amit.
Amit’s takeaways:
I called Amit for a meeting, not one of our scheduled one-‐on-‐ones. It was over a cup of strong south India filter coffee (Amit’s absolute favorite drink.. at work!) I asked him if he had heard of the guy who made a ‘kickass’ presentation to the global HR leadership and forced some serious negotiation on the new performance management process? He smiled, wondering if I was saying what he was thinking.
Through this journey, Amit realized that he would need to constantly revisit his strengths and build new ones to adapt to new situations; he could not rest on past laurels. He acknowledged that the hardest part was accepting that he had fallen short of expectations; turnarounds were easier said than done. It was important to focus on strengths and success, to fuel oneself. Perceptions are reality; managing perceptions was as important as creating them. He realized that there were advocates of his skills and supporters of his success; he needed to trust. Most importantly Amit acknowledged that this was an important step in his journey to broaden his corporate experience – it was a life experience.