The Cost of Disbelief

It was the sixth confidential after-hours meeting that I’d had with a weeping employee of a department reporting to me, and frankly, I was running out of tissues. I was also fresh out of excuses for the behavior of the manager that I‘d hired 11 months earlier, and had no one to blame for the state of the culture but myself.

Things certainly seemed different in the beginning those many years ago, when I found myself as a new leader charged with responsibility to transform a service function. Evan had come to work for me and seemed to be manna from heaven. He arrived fresh from a management position with a major competitor, where, according to rumor, he had been a fast-track performer. His wife had recently landed a pediatric residency at a prestigious east coast hospital, so Evan found himself in the job market – while we counted ourselves fortunate to have identified a candidate whose resume included a top Ivy League school and great work experience. I can finally exhale, I thought. I’ve hired a skilled manager who can work with the current staff of 12 professionals to improve operations and deliver great client service. For a while, it looked as if my prayers had been answered.

There were some early signs that all wasn’t going well that I should have recognized. The first indicator was that department operations weren’t improving as fast as I thought they should. But, Evan’s retort whenever I questioned him about it was to remind me of the poor shape the department was in when he inherited it. He also felt the staff was not as committed and skilled as they needed to be and should have been able to operate more independently. “They come to me for even the smallest decisions and really can’t think their way through any challenging situation,” he told me. In the back of my mind I carried a nagging doubt that the whole staff was incompetent, but figured this bright young man might challenge the team to step up their game, so I gave Evan more time to deliver results.

Evan’s management style later became an issue when I observed a team meeting during which he dissected the presentation of one of his female direct reports, (presumably to “improve it”) but so humiliated her in the process, that I watched all color drain from her face as Evan delivered his feedback. Not only did I disagree with some of his observations, I took issue with the way in which he supported (or didn’t) this employee’s learning. After the meeting, I counseled Evan on his interactions with his staff, but again gave him more time to improve, chalking up his terse feedback to his frustration with the difficulty of transformation process and the personal problems he was having with his wife. He’s a smart guy, went to a great school and will figure this out, I rationalized.

Sitting down at my desk after that last employee conference, during which I learned that Evan’s tactics with his staff had not changed, but had gotten worse, I knew more time was not the solution. I had waited way too long to take substantial action to end the assault on the culture of Evan’s department, which was creating a demoralized, rather than energized team – especially among the women, who seemed to be his favorite target. I had to accept that I had contributed to their pain by not taking more aggressive action with Evan early on. I’d also falsely assumed that a great pedigree assured that Evan would deliver outstanding results. My own biases in my hiring practices and my own shortcomings as a leader were mirrored in the pained expressions on the faces of employees who were brave enough to step forward and tell me the truth. I didn’t like my own reflection.

After a long sleepless night, during which I vacillated between beating myself up for my own shortcomings and wrestling with guilt about the impact of my leadership on the staff, I resolved to take immediate action. I knew that decision would require a very difficult, but necessary, discussion with Evan. It was time to begin again… by starting with a heartfelt apology to his staff, and developing a far more promising plan for their future.

By Alaina Love