Managing Sticky Situations at Work
Managing Sticky Situations at Work
Managing Sticky Situations at Work
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<strong>Sticky</strong> E-situ<strong>at</strong>ions 179Tommy’s e-mails go to Zack and others on the team to informthem about various issues rel<strong>at</strong>ed to their projects or to requestupd<strong>at</strong>es. Sometimes Tommy copies Zack on things he thinks Zackneeds to know.Zack’s problem lies in his inability to talk to Tommy face toface. Whenever he asks (by e-mail, of course) for a face-to-facemeeting, Tommy wants to know wh<strong>at</strong> the meeting is about. OnceZack tells him, Tommy responds with directives in order not toconduct the meeting. Wh<strong>at</strong> surprised Zack, however, was whenhe received his annual performance review by e-mail:To: ZackFrom: TommySubject: Annual ReviewYour work is adequ<strong>at</strong>e. Please find <strong>at</strong>tached my review. E-mailyour responses or initial it and return to me.Zack reviewed the comments, and he saw th<strong>at</strong> Tommy had r<strong>at</strong>edhis work as adequ<strong>at</strong>e or very good but never outstanding. Zackfelt dejected and wondered wh<strong>at</strong> he needed to do to improve hisperformance.APPLYING THE SAY IT JUST RIGHT MODELDECISION POINTSZack weighs the costs. Zack realizes th<strong>at</strong> if he does not learn howhe can improve his performance, he will never achieve his goal to moveup in this company. He knows th<strong>at</strong> he will have to push Tommy hardto have a face-to-face interaction, and he realizes th<strong>at</strong> Tommy willprobably respond neg<strong>at</strong>ively if he criticizes him for sending the performancereview by e-mail. Such actions might destroy the easy rel<strong>at</strong>ionshipthey currently have. Zack decides th<strong>at</strong> doing nothing will prolongthe problem, and he will likely find himself in this same position nextyear when it will be tougher to nail Tommy down.Zack sets limits. Zack decides th<strong>at</strong> he will talk to Tommy aboutneeding more face time. How can he perform his job if he never seeshis boss and his boss never tells him wh<strong>at</strong> he expects? He decides topush for face-to-face interactions on all performance-rel<strong>at</strong>ed issues.Zack determines the power sources. Tommy is the boss. If hewants to conduct performance reviews by e-mail, th<strong>at</strong>’s his choice.Zack suspects, however, th<strong>at</strong> Tommy wants his staff to perform in an
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