10

Leadership Meets the Employees

Ownership’s encounter with Poser, whether it was real or a dream, served as a wake-up call to him. He asked Leadership to bring the team together, and he shared his story with them. Interestingly, a few frontline employees were asked to be part of the meeting. When Communication questioned Leadership before the meeting about the wisdom of this move, he had replied, “Just trying to be transparent. It has become clear that Excellence has been replaced by Average, and no one even noticed until the ransom note was discovered. I believe that now our employees can more easily recognize this imposter, Average, than we can and that they are an important part of our getting our Excellence back.”

The team and the frontline employees listened intently to Ownership’s story. When he finished, the other members of the team related the strange interactions they too had experienced. Passion described how N. Different worked to lessen passion, energy, and enthusiasm for the work being done and the interactions taking place. Competency discussed N. Ept and how she kept people from getting the skills they needed to grow and be their best. Flexibility told about N. Flexibility—how he had people quote policy and procedure and not look for better ways or embrace change. Communication talked about Miss Communication and her unique ability to confuse the message.

When Excellence’s team was done, Jenna, one of the frontline employees, said simply, “We know them all.”

The entire team turned to her. “You know them all?” Communication asked, looking bewildered.

“Yes,” she replied innocently, and as she did, the other employees nodded in agreement. “They are all members of the Average crew,” she said.

Suddenly, Jared, another frontline employee, stood up, and the team could see that it took great courage for him to speak. “I did it,” he said. “I sent the ransom note.”

Excellence’s team stared in amazement. Jared summoned even more courage and stated resolutely, “You see, we”—he indicated his peers—“we have known that Excellence has been missing for some time now. The employees tried to get Excellence back on our own, but after a while, we realized that it would take Leadership, Excellence’s team, and us to get her back. So, I sent the ransom note to get your attention.”

“Why didn’t you just come and tell us?” Ownership asked.

The team didn’t miss the furtive glances that the employees gave one another. Jenna spoke again. “We have tried to tell you on a number of occasions.” Looking at Communication, she stated boldly, “You are pretty good at telling us what to do or what we should do and when, but sometimes you are not so good at listening.”

“Please, go on,” Communication said.

“Well,” Jenna said, taking a deep breath, “you should understand that most of the employees want to do their best. There are only a few employees who don’t pull their weight.”

Jared interjected, “And they never will!”

Ownership began, “But Poser told me—”

“Excuse me for the interruption,” Jared said impatiently, “but Poser does not represent us. He represents only those few employees that Jenna mentioned. Often, he’s able to convince Leadership that most employees are lazy and just want to get by with the minimum. Actually, most employees want to do a really good job. We just don’t always have the tools and direction we need.”

Jenna smiled at Jared and then continued, “It’s true. Most of us want to do our jobs well.” Looking at Passion, she said, “Do you want to know what motivates us, what makes us want to strive for excellence?” Passion blushed but didn’t reply. “Respect. Respect is a powerful motivator, as is caring. And we want to know that what we are doing is making a difference; recognition and appreciation are also great motivators.”

Then Jenna turned to Competency. “We want to be the best at what we do. We want the right information, training, support, and technology.”

She looked uncomfortably at her peers and said, “Some of us could improve our interpersonal skills and our confidence at work. Put yourself in our shoes,” she said, now looking at the team. “You ask us why we don’t tell you things you need to know. Well, in part, it’s because you walk around with your tablet computers and your own management language, going to meetings none of us are privy to, and then you show in up in our department with some announcement of a change, and you expect the employees to start implementing it.” Jenna could see that everyone on the team was listening. “Look, I am not trying to be sarcastic here. We are just asking you to help us by finding ways for us to acquire the skills we need to do our best.”

Competency started squirming in her chair.

Turning now to Flexibility, Jenna said, “Most of the employees here recognize that things in our industry change very quickly, and believe it or not, we are willing to learn how to meet those challenges.”

Still looking at Flexibility, she continued, “Earlier when I mentioned respect, well, this may be an opportunity to show it. It’s not too much to ask us to use our own judgment and common sense. Help us understand the change, the expected outcome, and the general direction. Then, rather than giving us the absolute requirements of how to get it done, perhaps you could ask us for our opinions. You might be surprised about the ideas, thoughts, and solutions we have.”

After a period of silence, Ownership added, “It seems that we all have the same goal, to get our Excellence back. Now let’s start working to make this happen and raise our Performance.”

“Anyone have any ideas of where we go from here?” Leadership said.