An
Optimist in La-La Land
"Jack's career was on track," said his boss
Ben, "then somehow he got sidelined under his previous boss. I'm the one who
took him off the shelf, but my superiors don't have the time of day for him, and I'm
beginning to question my own judgment. Technically he knows his job and he's bright as
hell, but he's not deep in his analysis of existing problems. He paints a pretty
picture for me, which I pass on to my own boss; then I find Jack's not always up-front,
doesn't do his homework in the beginning, doesn't give me the research and the options."
Ben, a
Six, had
steadily risen to the top in his organization due to his loyalty, people
skills, and tenacity. He respected his boss Sam immensely and repaid Sam's
trust in him by mentoring others in the organization. One of these
was Jack, who hadn't gotten along with his previous boss, for reasons buried in
the corporate undergrowth. Ben knew there were politics involved but he
also knew Jack was a very capable guy, so he hoped to be the one to put Jack
back on track.
The results in Jack's area were clearly better since Ben
placed him in the job, but in Ben's mind Jack wasn't tackling the big problems: "He's
optimistic to a fault. Everybody else outlines potential problems and how they're going to
solve them. I can't sleep at night knowing there are so many issues out there, but Jack's
objectives are abstract. Even under questioning he can't give much detail, and something
in my gut tells me things just aren't right."
Not only was Jack's
Seven style becoming clear long before I met
him, but I was beginning to see the potential for conflict between Ben's preoccupation
with what could go wrong and what I anticipated to be Jack's dedicated optimism. "He's
got no regard for spending money." Ben continued. "He has a car phone
with phone mail on it -- give me a break! And while I like to give a guy a little head
room, he abuses it when it comes to spending money on his employees -- some of
that's
absolutely appropriate, but he does it to a fault."
Ben had a good relationship with the rest of his team and
trusted his intuitive ability to connect with others, so he was surprised (and
somewhat hurt) that his feedback to Jack didn't get quick results. "I called you,"
he explained to me, "because though typically I'm on the same wave length with
people who report to me, Jack and I are miles apart. He pisses me off every day,
for a whole bunch of reasons. I spent several hours talking to him about this two days
ago, and his reaction was to 'Yes' me to death. The next day he told me he wasn't sure
what I said. The guy's in la-la land!"
As I expected, Jack met me with a delighted smile, introduced
me to everyone on his team, told me about that day's rally for sales, made sure I had
coffee, then together we spiraled into a fascinating conversation about how to make really
great salsa! When we got down to business, Jack started: "I always thought Ben and I had a lot in common. We're both very family-oriented and sensitive to people,
and he's promoted me twice in the last two years. But the last time we met he told me we
have a 'communication problem.' Then he said I'm 'not a team player,' and after that I
kind of went into a fog. I couldn't hear anything else he was saying. I have no
idea where he's coming from because my whole organization is team-driven and I
preach teamwork and team attitude. I know all my people by name, spend time with
them, take them out to lunch, whereas Ben never does that. I'm more of a cheerleader than he is."
When I commented about Ben's concern over Jack's lavishing good
food and nice hotels on his team, Jack said, "Yeah, Ben told me I entertain more
than any of his other managers, but my people represent the company every day and I need
to keep them pumped up." I commented to Jack that he seemed really upbeat, in
spite of having had a conversation with Ben less than a week before that seemed
threatening to his career. "Well, I could open a closet full of skeletons,"
he said, "but I don't dwell on them. I try to learn from my mistakes and move on."
He was somewhat concerned about his career, however: "I haven't lost many
promotions, but senior management in this organization doesn't reach out for me, and I'm
not sure why. The recognition I've gotten has come from external sources and from
the people who report to me."
When I talked to Jack's peers, they were much more balanced in
their view of him than Ben had predicted, and offered much to support Jack's view of
himself as a good leader. "He has a Star Wars vision of customer service,"
said one co-worker, "though today we don't have the people or technology to support
it. But he keeps the goal in mind and little by little works toward it."
"He's
very focused on the vision and communicates it with passion and emotion," said
another. "He's really inspirational and earns a tremendous amount of respect from
his people."
Most telling, though, was how Jack got in his way by positive reframing: "I think his measures are world class,
clear and
objective, but he talks as if everything surrounds people issues vs. talking about
results, so the rest of us don't take him seriously."
As a manager Jack got raves from almost everyone. "He
even has union employees motivated," said one of his subordinates. "He
promotes a very open atmosphere, lots of sharing of information among us; and it's a very feeling
climate --e really like each other." "He's great in a teaching role,"
said another. "He gives guidance, coaches, draws the thought process out of you,
occasionally makes suggestions. And he approaches change from the perspective of 'It's
fixable -- you don't want to lose it, just use it in a different way,' and you almost walk
away feeling good about a change you don't like!"
On the subject of
delegation and professional development one person said: "Jack wants his managers to
grow. He does a lot of development, knows his people, and pushes involvement to the lowest
levels." And most telling: "He makes new requests every day even though
our workload is maxed out, but this is an incredibly loyal and committed
group -- we're a team. You can be at wit's end, call him anytime, vent, and he always
turns it around to something positive."
Jack's lack of interest in details did show up in feedback
from those who worked for him. One employee with a compatible style said "He's
very supportive, but leaves us to do it. I thrive on this style because it makes me
demand more of myself." Another, though, acknowledged some frustration,
particularly in the beginning, with Jack's lack of structure: "He wants us to
manage with the goal in mind but without specifics."
In spite of these minor flaws, it was clear Jack's
failure to succeed was due almost entirely to one blind spot: his failure to pick up on
the more negative impressions he created among peers and senior management. In spite of
his peers' positive comments about him, he'd not really connected with peers because he
monopolized conversations and because his boundless cheerfulness was too much of "one
note." "He's hard to read," said one. "He always has a
smile on his face, and I don't know if it goes deep down because his expression never
changes." "I think he needs to be liked," theorized another.
"He's a very friendly person, but some people may find that irrelevant with
everything that's expected of us around here." This blind spot was reinforced Jack's not responding well to feedback: he didn't want to hear any bad
news. At times he'd react the way Ben observed, by just going into a fog; at other times
he was clearly defensive: "Jack's too quick to come up with all the reasons why
something happened instead of absorbing the information and then coming back and saying,
'Here's what I'm going to do.' Instead he just goes on and on."
I left
this consultation feeling sad because Jack,
Ben, and I together could not turn around the negative impressions already cemented among other senior managers. The good news is that Jack worked very hard to
learn how to solicit and accept
feedback;
and he improved his ability to listen to others instead of always being the
one to talk.
Furthermore, he and Ben looked with me at the interaction of their Enneagram
styles, and learned to balance their perspectives: Ben (the Six) with more
optimism and focus on possibilities (which helped him with his own boss), Jack (the
Seven) with more details and more contingency planning for potential problems. Ben did
help Jack find a comparable job in another company and Jack (of course) was able to look
at the whole situation as a good learning experience.
As an aside, I have to say I grew to love Jack.
He was very interested in the Enneagram and mature enough to appreciate it when I
pointed out his ego-traps. In fact, after our last meeting he faxed me this cartoon. Underneath,
he had printed, "A SEVEN!!!"
