Sure way to success

Right brain in a left brain position

Andrea was one of the handful of diversity hires from an Arts background recruited into a telecommunications company, Standard Telcom, and was posted to the Engineering division comprised of almost 700 employees, most of which were from a technical background.

She later found that her specific posting was to join the satellite department within the Engineering division. The satellite department was a mediocre performer, and in matter of a few months she realized that while her many of her colleagues were technically strong, they did not seem to have a grasp of the wider telecommunication business. 

Alternative viewpoints

She had the knack of being able to look at things from different angles, and it was not long before Andrea was suggesting new ideas to colleagues and her department manager while learning the technical side of the business. 

It was no surprise that her collaborative nature and business savviness soon won her respect of many of her more experienced and older colleagues. Within a year of joining Standard Telcom, she was promoted to be a team leader.

The fact that Andrea continued to be consistent in being herself even after her promotion, working collaboratively with her older and more experienced colleagues and peer team leaders, meant that she was able to quickly earn the trust and support of her own team and gain influence with others. She was also quick to protect her team by accept accountability for any less than ideal results, and gave credit to her team members in return for any successes.

Pass the ball

The satellite department provided satellite-based services to clients and at the time it was not a popular service. In her third year with the business, Andrea had been promoted to assistant manager while still leading her team. She was working with her department manager to implement a couple of new ideas to turn the business around, however things were slow going.

Standard Telcom used to be a government owned business which was later privatized, and her department manager rose through the ranks in the previous government owned days. He was open and supportive to ideas but was hesitant to try them as he was more interested in keeping his position.

The Head of the Engineering division could no longer afford to have a loss-making department in his portfolio, so he enquired with Senior Management if the department could be relocated elsewhere. None of his fellow division heads wanted to be associated with it.

The beginning of the reputation

Rumours that the Satellite department would be shut down eventually reached Andrea, and she sprang into action. With the support of her department manager, she approached the Head of the Engineering division and ask for 12 months to turn the things around.

Working collaboratively with her fellow team leaders, Andrea was able to drive a number of new initiatives that turn the satellite department from a loss of $100,000 to a profit of $70,000 within those 12 months.

The heads of the other divisions now clamoured for the profitable satellite department. Andrea felt that more could be done, however the decision was made by Senior Management to move it to another division. Still, her reputation as a ‘turnaround’ person was established within Standard Telcom.

Mobile phones

By her fifth year Andrea was promoted to the grade of manager, was put in charge of a small team within the business mobile division of Standard Telcom. Mobile phones was beginning to be popular within the corporate business community, and her small team of four were directly involved in business development. The business mobile division was a small elite group of 45 professionals working with corporate clients from across the board.

There were still parts of Standard Telcom that functioned in a manner befitting its previous government run days, and the office that the business mobile division occupied was just like that. Imagine office cubicles with high walls that gave employees privacy but isolated each other. 

Andrea had sufficient experience to know that if she wanted to affect change in the workplace, she could either change the physical work environment or change the leadership. She felt that the culture of business mobile division could be really shaken up if some changes were made.

Walled down

With tentative agreement for her Head of Business Mobile Division, Lucas, Andrea made changes to the physical workplace by opening up the workspace. That improved the work environment, allowing colleagues to collaborate and communicate a lot more. Productivity went up along with business profits.

Andrea continued with her collaborative approach, guiding her immediate team with consistency in values while working with the other teams within the Division. As the significance of her impact to the division grew, so did her influence as a leader. 

Little did she realize that someone was about to trust a dagger into her back.

Knife in the back

Lucas called her into his office one day and told her that she had been creating a lot of impact and change within the division, much of which was not initiated by him. She enquired further and realized that Lucas was feeling threatened, his insecurities was getting the better of him. 

Andrea instinctively knew that she could not work with an immediate boss that was insecure and threatened by her efforts for the division, and so she quietly tendered her resignation to him. She intended to only announce her departure from the organization on her last week on the job.

3 days later news of her quiet resignation had leaked and the entire division of 45 colleagues were up in arms. Some felt that an injustice had taken place, others knew they were more successful because of Andrea's collaborative nature; many saw her as the true leader of the division.

In an unprecedented move never to be repeated in the organization, all 45 colleagues walked off their desks and headed straight to the senior manager's office.

May justice be served

Andrea's reputation as a turnaround person had not gone unnoticed by Henry, the senior manager who was Lucas' boss. He got a rude shock when he found 45 people had flooded the corridor directly to his office demanding that justice be dished out. 

Henry placated the employees, urging them to return to their desks. He would immediately look into the resignation. He immediately went back into his office and gave Andrea a call.

Andrea had just returned from a client meeting and was unaware of what had happened minutes earlier. She found it odd that the business mobile office was completely empty, and had just stepped into her cubicle when she received the call from Henry.

As she spoke with Henry, the senior manager asked her to retract her resignation letter, promising that he would immediately investigate the situation. By the time the call was over, all 45 colleagues were back to their desk and it was then her team informed her of what had happened.

Awkward

The workplace got tensed, especially between Lucas and Andrea. Every colleague in the division, including Lucas's own team, looked at Andrea as the true leader of the division. She worked for the betterment of the division and everybody knew it.

Two weeks after the incident Lucas did not show up to work one day. Henry came down to the office and informed the entire division that Lucas would be moving to a new position elsewhere, and having had prior discussions with Andrea, she was going to officially take over the leadership position of the business mobile division.

A cheer rang throughout the office. The support for her was unanimous. Andrea would later learn that a few months later, Lucas was asked to leave the organisation because his insecurities got the better of him even at his new posting.

Collaboration. It’s a definite win!

Andrea's reputation for consistent display of values, working collaboratively with colleagues to earn their trust and support, and her reputation as a turnaround person who can bring in fresh ideas would continue with her career in Standard Telcom.

The organization will eventually make a multibillion-dollar acquisition of a foreign telecommunications organization that was losing a billion dollars a year. Andrea would be part of the team that was sent over to that new subsidiary, where she once again worked her magic and successfully turn that business around to a profit of 700 million within a year.

Andrea is now a senior manager in that foreign subsidiary, is still known as a turnaround person, and now focuses on turning around potential leaders and collaboratively working with them to make them great.

Question: How has collaboration helped you to be successful in your leadership?

About the writer:

Daniel Lee is a speaker and writer and is co-authoring a book on First Time Leadership (FTL) to create a roadmap to understanding leadership for aspiring and first time leaders.

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Disclaimer  

This article is based off a true story that I learned during my interviews with senior and first time leaders. Any similarities with fictitious events or characters are purely coincidental.