Here at ACACIA Solutions I get to listen to lots of real life stories of leaders who unintentionally create gigantic SNAFUs for their teams. Often the leaders do it for good reasons, completely unaware of what their actions have done to their team and the organization. Sometimes the simplest action can cause ripples through out a team that impacts the culture of the organization and the credibility of a leader for years to come.
Usually by the time I hear the story, team members are so distraught and negative about their leader, that to rectify the situation seems insurmountable. Yet through examination of what went wrong, we can often gain our greatest learnings from these Leadership SNAFUs. We don’t usually get “do overs”, but when we learn from our past, we can prevent future SNAFUs.
Come join me as we hear from a team member who describes what happens when leaders in their organization didn’t demonstrate the “right stuff”. We’ll examine what occurred, what leadership rules were broken, how it could have been done differently and what could be done to recover now that the mess has been made.Two weeks ago, a team leader picks up her phone and is amazed to hear the Executive VP of her division on the other end. He needs her team to develop a finished presentation with a deadline of Friday morning of this week. This presentation is crucial for both the company and some of it’s most important clients.
She mobilizes her team and they go to work. They bust their humps, working overtime and pulling out all the stops, not only in effort but in creativity as well. The team believes that the final product is stunning AND their best work yet.
Yesterday, they felt it was important to engage their VP who reports to the EVP who original requested the presentation. They wanted her to check the final wording before sending the finished presentation to the EVP.
This is the 1st time that Ms. VP has heard about the presentation request. She looks at the combined two weeks work of the team and says; “The wording looks fine, but we should move some of the elements around – shift this here, and shift that over there … after all, it’s in a computer program. It should only take you an hour or so. … oh, by the way, bring it back to me for final approval. Thanks.”
Lets review where we are in point form:
- The team received this assignment directly from their EVP 2 weeks ago
- They’ve worked extensive overtime to complere it by the dead line set by the EVP
- They feel this is their best creative project yet
- The final project is due on the EVP’s desk (Friday) tomorrow at 8 am
- It’s now late Thursday afternoon(quiting time)
- The team has asked their VP to review “wording” of the presentation – not format.
- The VP is fine with wording, but feels that a slight shifting of the presentation elements would improve the presentation
- The VP minimizes the teams 2 weeks of work by saying; “It should only take an hour or so – it’s in a computer program anyway.”
- The VP wants final approval after the changes are done.
Before we complete the examination of this Leadership SNAFU, we’d like to hear from you. Take a moment and “comment” at the bottom of this article.
Answer the following:
- What leadership principals were broken in this scenario?
- Who broke them?
- What should the VP have done?
- What would you do now to correct it?
Stay tuned for the final outcome of this Leadership SNAFU in the next week or so.
Do you have a Leadership SNAFU story? Tell us your story – Use our contact page . We’ll add it to our library of leadership SNAFUs so that other leaders might learn from the mistakes you’ve endured.
