One of the study questions from last week that we didn’t address in class was the question around how you should respond to any comments or actions of the three VPs during that initial meeting between the three VPs and the co-CEO. The VPs were clearly showing their disrespect of the co-CEOs and even engaging in some deception (for example, the comment about the Woodbridge office’s sadness about the former CEO’s departure). While we discussed in class that you could prevent this from happening by meeting with the VPs individually earlier on to build a relationship from the beginning, I’m sure there will still be situations where you are coming in to lead people who may not respect your authority, especially if you are the youngest person in the room.
When initially forming that relationship, is it best to try to build rapport and trust or to establish authority? Is there a way to approach it that addresses both? Let’s take the VPs arriving 12 minutes late to the meeting as an example. This seems pretty unacceptable, but it also might start the meeting off on a very tense note if that’s what you immediately address going in. On the other hand, if you don’t address it at all, you lose authority and encourage this behavior from happening in the future. To balance the two, I would probably try to address it at the end of the meeting after gauging how the VPs feel about me. However, I’m curious if there’s a better way to approach this head on.
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