Overcoming fear with a robust skill set
We all have things that create a sense of trepidation that causes us to hesitate. My particular fear is of heights. I’m not sure why, but if I get more than a couple dozen feet above terra firma, I get that little wiggling feeling in my belly. Now, one might say that is a natural reaction to potential danger. I must say that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
However, that possibly irrational fear does keep me from doing some things that bring others pleasure. Climbing cliffs, hot air balloon rides and (heavens forbid) roller coasters all come to mind. There are people who overcome their fears through immersion therapy and taking slow steps to enhance their ability to come to grips with them. Over time, they develop skills to help manage their reluctance and embrace their new abilities to enjoy the things they previously denied themselves.
I often see behavior in leaders that I would describe as fearful. For some reason they hesitate to set clear expectations and hold people accountable for results.
At one point I had a fellow who worked for me in the factory. He was a long term employee and had worked in different organizations than I. Let’s call him Bob.
Bob was indeed technically competent. He had scads of experience and I was looking forward to having his skills on my shift. What I discovered was that he had a prickly disposition and was not particularly liked by, well, anyone. At that time, we were working toward expanding the role of the operators and were providing them training to take care of routine equipment issues. I quickly found that Bob was having absolutely none of that and refused to do any training. His presence became toxic and impacted the morale of his peers and the operator population.
I sat with him and set explicit expectations for him to help with the training with timetables, etc. He essentially told me to take a hike. Yikes!
As you might imagine, I persisted as this was important to the organization. Lots of discussion ensued and he grudgingly agreed to try. I met with him frequently and checked with the team on the status of training. No surprise, he took a passive aggressive stance and consistently resisted making any real progress.
At one point, I gave him an annual review and, in no uncertain terms, held him accountable for his lack of cooperation. I laid out my expectations (again) and pointed out areas he must improve. To say he rejected the review is to put it mildly! He became angry and let me know NO ONE had ever given him a review like this and that I had it out for him, and that I was trying to ruin his career. Not the most fun I’ve ever had.
After that, I went to several of his previous supervisors and asked them about him. Every single one said the same thing. That he had a terrible attitude, couldn’t work with others, awful teammate… the list went on. When I went through his personnel file I found they all had given him exemplary reviews! I was stunned. What I learned was that they were afraid of his belligerent attitude and also concerned that they didn’t want to run him off because of his technical skills.
So what when wrong in this scenario? There were a couple things at work. Even if the supervisor set high expectations for Bob (some did) none of them held him accountable for his performance beyond the technical. The question is why?
My assessment is they didn’t have the skills to handle Bob’s bullying ways and they were afraid of conflict. This is not unusual. These truly are advanced skills and absolutely necessary in effectively leading a team, especially of highly talented individuals like Bob.
As supervisors and leaders of organizations we must realize we don’t really manage people. They manage themselves. Our role is to set expectations, provide skills and hold people accountable for their results. To do so effectively requires a specific set of abilities that must be acknowledged, learned and honed.
The skills I recommend developing are:
Setting expectations
Coaching
Conflict management
Constructive feedback
Corrective action
Doing each of these things well gives the leader the highest likelihood of success for his or her team. It takes a lot of focus and practice to be effective and even more work to have it come “naturally”. To be sure, this path is fraught with danger and discomfort in some cases. This is the fear that causes leaders to default to a passive, accommodating stance. They are afraid that their attempts will fail, that they’ll do the wrong thing, that it won’t work out for the best. Hence, there is a tendency to just let it go and deal with the other consequences. The true costs of lack of action are often in poor morale, depressed performance of the team, and high turnover.
The way out of this conundrum is by learning the specific skills and committing to applying them. It is critical to not let failures (there will be those) detract from moving forward. Each of these is a learning event from which the supervisor will gain wisdom and confidence for the next time.
And what about Bob? Sorry to say I could not turn him around. It happens. He eventually parted ways with the company. We did miss his skills for a time yet somehow the factory kept running. It always seems to work out that way.
Make it happen.
