I’ve been busy over the past week or two handling a myriad of business topics and tasks which has decreased my blogging time dramatically. One item has come up during this time at one of our customers – a battle of wills amongst managers. This is no small battle, it has turned into an ongoing war for which I am now in the midst of the battlefield.
Without going into specifics, I can tell you where we start in these situations – motivations. The first place to look when there is interpersonal conflict within an office team is the motivation pattern for each individual. In the instance with our customer, we have two people with almost polar opposite motivational patterns.
Here is why this matters – neither person can understand where the other is coming from, especially in terms of decision-making. Each person finds the other one to be inconsistent, off-base and…well, wrong. The relationship has deteriorated into acerbic communication.
Unfortunately, this customer did not assess this employee when they were in the hiring phase. Instead, they made an emotional hire. This employee has the skills to succeed in this role, but the hiring manager was never informed of the employee’s motivational pattern. If he had been, he would have known the differences between the two of them and he could have managed through them.
I’m not sure the relationship is salvageable. I am certain it was avoidable.