Managing Sticky Situations at Work

xivIntroduction4. You supervise a group of people who are giving you a lot oftrouble. They deliberately withhold information from you andscheme to undermine your authority. Would you ...a. Talk to each individually to determine what can be doneb. Fire them all and start overc. Try and befriend them5. The group you supervise routinely conducts informal meetingswithout you. You’ve noticed that one person instigates themeetings. Do you ...a. Fire or reassign that personb. Attend the informal meetings uninvitedc. Talk to the instigator and proceed with disciplinarymeasures if necessary6. One of your fellow sales managers steals your prospects. You’veseen him lurking around your desk and caught him when hecontacted one of your prime buyers. Would you ...a. Immediately report him to your supervisorb. Steal his prospectsc. Confront him7. During an important job interview, the interviewer makes a lewd,clearly illegal comment. Would you ...a. Tell him the comment was offensiveb. Pretend you didn’t hear itc. Forget that job and search elsewhere, but tell everyone youknow about it8. One of your clients owes you money. You know that his businesshas been suffering in recent months. He’s been a good client, buthe’s never paid you. Would you ...a. Write it off and quit doing business with himb. Bill him again with a note asking him to payc. Talk to him and try to work out a payment planAnswer key: Please see Appendix 1.Your sticky situation quotient tells you whether you tend to turnaway from sticky situations, whether you act passive-aggressively byindirectly responding to the situation, or whether you, in fact, dealdirectly with the problem. The higher your score the more likely it isyou already deal directly with sticky situations and the more easilyyou’ll apply the SIJR Model.