117
Chapter 13
Lunch with Karen
Dave’s conversation with Claire seemed to have a
positive impact on their relationship: they were get-
ting along and denitely working better together. Their
informal, easy banter about their opposing behavioral
styles was a great sign that they had learned a lot from
the session with Charles Henry and were recognizing
and respecting their differences. Any disagreements
that they were having were being resolved by working
through them together. It had been weeks since either
had come to Eliza’s ofce to complain.
The badger and the coyote were beginning to see
eye to eye. Although she thought it unlikely that they
would ever touch noses, Eliza saw this as real progress.
But she also knew the honeymoon wouldn’t last.
The calm would end with the next broken promise,
mishap, or client mistake, which was likely just around
the corner. Typically, the second quarter was a stressful
118 ◾ Transforming Teams
and intense time in HDS’s sales cycle, and Eliza knew
she needed a more solid foundation for the team before
the busy season started, as she didn’t want a few mis-
takes to undo all the improvements and goodwill that
had been accomplished.
Having given her sales and customer service teams
a couple of weeks to become comfortable working
within their styles, Eliza decided to try to help keep the
momentum going. She invited to lunch her longtime
friend and business coach, Karen Boyd, hoping to get
some ideas on appropriate next steps.
Karen had helped Eliza many times throughout her
own career. In fact, she had helped her master her
critical conversation skills and her emotional-intelligence
clarity. She was a great resource and asset to Eliza.
Lunch with Karen ◾ 119
As usual, Eliza arrived at the restaurant early so that
she could prepare her thoughts for the conversation.
Karen arrived exactly at noon, the time agreed upon
for their meeting. Eliza jokingly commented on Karen’s
punctuality.
“Of course I’m on time!” exclaimed Karen. “I prom-
ised you I would meet you for lunch here at 12:00,
didn’t I? Plus, I’m so excited to hear about how things
are going, and it has been ages since we talked. Tell
me what’s going on.”
Eliza laughed. It was just like Karen to translate a
simple lunch date into a “promise.” She always had a
unique way of looking at things and of putting such
weight on logistics and timing. She was certainly the
most dependable and reliable of all of Eliza’s friends
and colleagues.
After they ordered lunch and had caught up on
personal matters, Eliza settled in to tell Karen about the
difculty she was having with her management team.
She described the work she had done with the DISC
and how pleased she was that Claire, Dave, and their
teams were beginning to appreciate and interpret each
other’s styles. She told Karen about the work with Dave
and critical conversations and how he and Claire were
beginning to really work well together.
She shared that she believed the work to date on
behavioral styles had created a profound change in the
team, but that she feared the calm wouldn’t last and the
progress could unravel.
“Our busy time starts in about four weeks. We get
approximately 60 percent of our annual sales orders
120 ◾ Transforming Teams
between April 15 and June 15, and that volume creates a
huge amount of tension and stress on everyone. I want to
make sure we keep the progress going, but I’m worried.”
“You’re right to be worried,” Karen said. “No matter
how successful we are at adapting our behaviors, under
stress the inclination is to revert back to our natural
style. In the case of your team, since you have conict-
ing behavioral styles, that’s a recipe for major trouble.
Tell me, do your sales and customer service folks trust
each other?”
Eliza pushed her seat back and reected on the
question. “Trust is a pretty personal thing. I’m not sure
how to answer that.”
“Well, do they do what they say they’re going to do
when they say they’re going to do it? Do they live up to
their commitments? Do they keep their promises?”
“Well, I’m not sure. I think they’re trying to,” said
Eliza. “Things are denitely improving. But if I reect
back on their long-standing struggles and arguments,
and by that I mean past challenges between Claire and
Dave in particular, I would say they struggle with doing
what they say they’re going to do when they say they’re
going to do it.
“Claire struggles to get the work done within the
time frame that Dave wants, and Dave makes commit-
ments to clients that Claire feels she can’t keep. They
are working on it, but, historically speaking, no, I don’t
think there’s a lot of trust between them.”
Karen leaned forward and said, “We can’t change
history, but we can change how we think about it. So
that’s where we’ll have to go next.”
Lunch with Karen ◾ 121
Karen and Eliza spent the remainder of their lunch
planning a retreat that Karen would facilitate. Their
next learning objective would be about trust.
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