If I were Bob and had heard Harris’s feedback on Stone, I would investigate the issue further before drawing any conclusions about Harris or Stone. Since this is the first time Bob is hearing about the issue, he doesn’t have much data on Stone’s perspective or the perspective of others in the department. When I read the case and saw that previously Harris and Stone had been positioned as peers, I immediately suspected that Harris might be jealous of Stone’s promotion to a higher position. However, given my lack of information, I would not want to unfairly deal with either Harris or Stone—it’s entirely possible that Stone really has been too hands-off recently, or that Harris needs to adjust to the fact that Stone’s new role entails new responsibilities and she cannot spend as much time with her team as she did previously.
In order to investigate this issue, I would set up an informal check-in with Stone and ask her how her transition to her SVP role is going. I’d also talk to Fred Beasley and Erin Crossland, who are also Stone’s direct reports, to understand whether Harris’s feelings are shared across the team. As much as possible, I’d avoid making it explicit that I was investigating the issue. Then, based on the information gathered, I’d decide whether to leave things as is, provide feedback to Paula, or provide feedback to Harris. Regardless of who I eventually decide is wrong, I’d probably ask Harris if she’s mentioned any of her concerns directly to Stone and give her feedback that she should try to work these concerns out directly with Stone if possible.
I agree on the fact that further information is needed and I would also do an investigation by myself without making it explicit or too obvious. The point I wanted to highlight is that I would be extremely careful to let Harris know that Stone has my support and that the first thing she should have done is talk to Paula. While Stone is the supervisor, she needs the CEO’s support, otherwise we would make the problem even worse adding doubts and probably insubordination from her reports thinking that the CEO has the same opinion. The only moment when I would let Harris know that she was right about her boss and that the administration took the decision of removing Paula because of situations we had observed, is after terminating her.
ReplyDeleteIf a company starts supporting employees on their complaints about their supervisors before the situation is clear and actions have been taken, the company would soon become a complete mess.