Leadership - Company Case Study

I work as a team manager within product engineering organization in “A” company. Michael is one of my team members, who joined in our company in 2014 as senior program manager. Michael reported to John before he moved to my organization in Feb 2015.

During the 2014 annual review it was highlighted that John’s performance were not up to our company’s bar.  Some of the feedbacks from his peers mainly were: Michael needed to continue to understand the R&R (role and responsibility) among the functions, so he would better lead the efforts within organization and right respond to what he is asked by other functions; It was important for Michael to understand some of the impact on the activities; Michael was not sure about the implication and some decisions caused confusion to management; Michael was unable to understand the reasons behind some of the request given by our counterpart. Those feedback indicated that Michael was not performing well through 2014.

Therefore, this essay is to exam what Michael’s previous manager John should have done to improve John’s performance, and as his new manager, how should I address those concerns on his performance and build a strong team.

Michael started to report to me from Feb 2015 (after the 2014 annual review) based on management’s decision. One of my major tasks was to address those concerns on Michael’s performance. I reviewed all the feedbacks from his peers and his previous manager John, and I believed that Michael was not clear enough about the requirement on his work and our company’s leadership principles, which mainly include: Customer Obsession; Ownership; Invent and Simplify; Are Right, A Lot; Learn and Be Curious; Hire and Develop the Best; Insist on the Highest Standards; Think Big; Bias for Action; Frugality; Earn Trust; Dive Deep; Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit; Deliver Results, etc. Michael’s previous manager John should also have helped with him to set up goals which are aligned with his team’s mission and our company’s leadership principles. If John did these, Michael should have a better chance to meet the performance bar during the 2014 annual review.

In order to help Michael to improve his performance, my first step is to identify the major leadership principles in our company which he needed to focus on. Michael and I aligned that Ownership, Bias for Action, and Think Big are the areas which needed to focus on. I explained to John what those mean in details:

Ownership - Leaders are owners.  They think long term and don't sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team.  They never say “that's not my job”.

Bias for Action - Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here”. As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Think Big - Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

The next thing I did is to work with Michael on his goals which are aligned with the areas where there are gaps with his performance, and the goals could get him motivated. Below were some of the goals which were identified.

• Thinking above and beyond my direct role and responsibility, and understand how my actions impact the organization
• Become more proactive in taking action in areas that need to be addressed without direction. Rather than wait for somebody to request information, ask questions, or set up a con call, Should be thinking about what needs to be delivered, communicated, and take action ahead of others
• Understanding the details in order to support the team effectively in their communication
• Build consensus: respectfully disagree with others, and then commit to decisions that are made by the larger team or management chain. When disagreeing with others, I need understand their point of view especially when others are asking for information I may not believe they need.

When I work with Michael on setting up those goals, we made sure the goals are “SMART” ones, which means the goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound.

Other than those actions, I worked with Michael to find a mentor in the company who is more experienced and had strong performance. I also worked with Michael offering him some opportunities of shadowing some other program teams. All of these activities hopefully helped Michael to learn from others. I also had regular 1:1 with Michael to follow up the progress he made and see what he still needed from me. Michael made progress continuously and finally we had another round review of his performance on Sep 1 and team agreed that he met the Bar!