A few weeks ago, I met a really insightful story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A young entrepreneur was complaining. He had started a family business with his father, later grew it on his own, and now it had outgrown him. He had to do everything, working from morning until night. The people he hired didn\u2019t take it as seriously as he did, and he had to solve everything himself. He was completely worn out. He felt like he had to push every aspect of the company forward by himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wasn\u2019t sure how open he\u2019d be to a bit of organizational development advice, but I briefly summarized Adizes\u2019 theory on life cycles and dropped the key point that you simply can\u2019t keep doing things the same way once you reach a certain point\u2014you have to start doing things differently. \nThere was silence on the other end of the line, and then he said that he felt exactly that way. He had to go, but he promised that we\u2019d discuss it in more detail next week. I would have been surprised if he actually reached out afterward. I checked in with him to see how things were going, if the situation had improved, but after a while, I let it go. In the situation he described, people usually struggle until they can\u2019t anymore, then either settle into stagnation at a lower level or start making changes, building systems\u2014but it seemed like it wasn\u2019t time for that yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, the next chapter of the story reached me, which is brilliant because it shows how he managed to make changes without really changing anything, how he tried to expand his influence without having to do anything more effectively, but how he ultimately made things worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He hired Sanyi. Sanyi is the boss\u2019s friend, and no one knows his last name because he forgot to introduce himself to his colleagues. Sanyi was supposed to manage a team of women who work part-time for a large company as subcontractors, and they\u2019re intelligent enough that when Sanyi started by yelling at them, saying they were doing a lousy job and that there were many complaints about them, they pushed back. They told him that they\u2019re regularly meeting with the client, and receiving positive feedback\u2014so could he explain exactly what he was talking about?\nSanyi is the kind of person who doesn\u2019t say hello, makes snide remarks, tries to intimidate people, ignores the client\u2019s requests and their \"nonsensical\" rules. But Sanyi is still the boss\u2019s friend, even though the boss doesn\u2019t operate that way at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This situation raises several interesting points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- If I trust someone as my friend, how sure can I be that they\u2019ll operate according to my values when they become my subordinate, especially given that they\u2019re explicitly my friend, which they can hide behind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Will I even find out if their behavior is damaging my business interests? Will I pay as much attention to them as I do to other colleagues, and will I notice if any negative feedback comes back about them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- How will the relationship between Sanyi and the team develop? Will the women feel strongly enough that they don\u2019t deserve such treatment and report it to the boss, or will they just drift away? Or will the obvious verbal aggression overpower the otherwise much smarter but female workforce?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- How will the friendship and collaboration be affected if Sanyi\u2019s involvement leads to the team essentially dissolving itself and the company losing the big contract?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This case is interesting on both levels of leadership, from group dynamics to individual reactions, and it also shows how much damage a poorly chosen change can cause in a short time. I think this is why it\u2019s so important to have at least one experienced professional mentor around us with whom we can discuss our decisions, someone with enough experience and authority to tell us if we\u2019re doing something stupid. Otherwise, Sanyi might come along and troll the business into the ground.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
N\u00e9h\u00e1ny hete megtal\u00e1lt egy nagyon tanuls\u00e1gos sztori. Fiatal v\u00e1llalkoz\u00f3 panaszkodik. A v\u00e1llalkoz\u00e1sa csal\u00e1di v\u00e1llalkoz\u00e1s, az apuk\u00e1j\u00e1val ind\u00edtotta, majd k\u00e9s\u0151bb egyed\u00fcl n\u00f6velte, \u00e9s most m\u00e1r t\u00faln\u0151tt rajta. Mindent neki kell csin\u00e1lnia, reggelt\u0151l estig h\u00fazza az ig\u00e1t, akiket felvesz, nem veszik olyan komolyan, mint \u0151, neki kell mindent megoldania, teljesen k\u00e9szen van. A c\u00e9g minden l\u00e1b\u00e1t neki […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,12,14],"class_list":["post-2301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-egyeb","tag-communication","tag-shortstory","tag-workingwithteams"],"yoast_head":"\n