Last
post, I asked you all what you would do if you were this woman’s boss.
Here’s my opinion.
I would quickly find a time that she was available
and drop in on her in the hope of having a candid and informal conversation.
My initial concern would be for her perceptions of
her working environment. I would not
communicate anger or disappointment or even entertain the issue of her behavior
until we talked about her frustrations.
Am I out of touch with her needs or her team’s
needs?
Is there something that I need to be doing
differently?
If she said that there was nothing wrong, I would
differ with her. Obviously, there’s
something wrong and I’m eager to bear my portion of the responsibility, but I
need to know what she thinks needs to change.
If we identified issues during the conversation we’d
discuss what we both could do to address them. Some type of follow up would be planned.
Once that conversation was completed to both of
our satisfaction, we would address her behavior.
As a colleague and a leader (it seems as though
her audience either reports to her or she has some type of situational
authority), her behavior was inappropriate.
- It was rude and disrespectful (not just to me but to the other people in the room).
- It was unprofessional, childish, and self-indulgent.
My intention would not be to make her squirm.
However, she must understand that the behavior she
exhibited will not be tolerated no matter who it’s directed toward.
She also needs to realize that we’re on the
same team and we need to work together not at odds.
If this “episode” was part of a well established
pattern of behavior then additional actions would be needed.