…Trashed, trampled & shredded right in front of his team.
The sound of review spelled nightmare for him and his team. Unfortunately it was an omen they were too powerless to wish away.
He was the regional manager of one of the Nigerian leading banks at a time when the economy and regulatory bodies placed such an unusual demand on the banking sector.
It was the quarterly practice that bosses from HQ show up at the regions for performance review that in some instances went into days.
This episode was not going to look good, they knew. They’ve become so immune to the ranting and shredding that escorted underperformance. It was in a descending pattern. From your boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s… boss, before it was yours truly. You would be out of place not to shake it together, & pass it down, to release the pressure from your shoulders.
In this case it was a whole day of seeing your boss getting shredded and messed up right in front of you and your downlines, for your underperformance. If you’ve stayed long enough in the system, it was just normal to comprehend what was coming to you & all that concerned you,
After the departure of the HQ from the region, the expectation was a meeting that would further the descend of shredding. Day 1, 2, 3, 4. No meeting was called.
To their surprise, a meeting was not called until the dusts had settled. In any case, it won’t be anything new they thought.
At the meeting, the recently trashed, trampled and shredded regional manager said very few but impactful words.
“What you heard at the last regional review meeting does not in anyway reflect who we are. I want us to creatively put heads together and find a way to change our story.”
Before the end of the year, the region traveled from its very deplorable situation to the top in the country, in terms of performance.
Dear leaders, here are 5 thoughts for team leadership:
…”Tap” leaders have the capacity to hold pressures and constructively release them. “Pipe” leaders transfer pressure as it comes.
…If you give it as you get it, what value have you brought to leadership?
…Instead of shredding, there may be better approaches to getting the best out of your team, with fewer or limited collateral damages. Why not explore?
…Take advantage of the value of PAUSE. As it’s said, between stimulus and response, there is the freedom to choose. So, PAUSE-THINK-ACT, not the other way round.
…Whenever people around a leader consistently feel their self-esteem trashed, trampled and smashed by a leader’s actions, something may be wrong with the leader.
Are you a tap or pipe leader? Total transformation is possible. Feel free to reach out to me for support in motivating your team to success.
#leadership
#teammotivation
