Something To Think About

Fox in the Meeting

By:  Dr. Michael R. McGough

Their business was highly competitive even in the best of times.  A sluggish economy made it even more essential that they operate at peak efficiency and with the highest possible level of customer service.  Their ability to operate as a team was indispensable.  Each of the major branches of the company had a manager, and under each manager there were several administrators. 

The CEO was a member of the management team, and he was clearly the leader.  He was always quick to state that this company was run by the branch managers.  He believed that the team knew the company better than any one person could ever hope to know and understand it.  Thus, he saw himself as a team leader who believed in and supported a team approach to decision making and initiative development.  As is true of any group, the members of this team were a diverse bunch.  There were the pessimists and the optimists, the eager beavers and the more passive followers, along with the cooperators and those who tended to balk at suggestions that were not their own. 

Over a period of a few years, one of the managers began demonstrating some unproductive behaviors, and in time the effect was not good.  Frequently, she arrived late for meetings, and usually she left early.  She always had an excuse.  Nonetheless, she sent the message that the meetings were not a high priority.  To make matters worse, when she was in attendance, she tended to dominate.  If she was trying to making up for coming late and leaving early, everyone saw it as the transparent effort that it was.

The company where she had worked previously had a good reputation.  Trying to exploit that reputation for her own advantage, she constantly tried to pass everything though the filter of, "This is how we did it at . . ."   That quickly got old.  Following one such filtering one of the members of the team shared with another, "If it was that good there, why did she leave?" 

When she was not filtering everyone's ideas, she was usually offering a better idea.  She did it so often that when a new proposal was shared, there was a pause to see what she was going to offer.  Sometimes her better idea was actually better, but more often than not, it was no better at all.  Thus her suggestions came to be seen as little more than vain attempts to impress the group and share in or claim a piece of any promising idea.  Her somewhat aggressive approach in time caused some members of the team to stop offering suggestions, knowing that they would only be challenged or claimed by the team showoff.         

As the team know-it-all her impact on the group became increasingly negative, but when she turned to bullying, that was a whole new concern.  Her personal assaults were cruel and callous, and she enjoyed attacking in a public forum.  Amazingly, she had no toleration whatsoever, if someone challenged her, criticized her, or tried to better one of her ideas.  If even a passing comment seemed to be directed toward her, she generally screamed foul.  Her damaging antics came to a head, when she shared that she felt the team had become ineffective and was not viewed well by their competitors in the marketplace. 

Finally, the CEO decided to share his thoughts.  He did so in a metaphorical manner that clearly defined the issues as he and several members of the management team saw it.  He shared with her that he too was aware that there was some level of dysfunction on the team.  He said he had seen it developing and wanted to stop it before it worsened.  He said, "You know, you complain that there is some commotion in our little barnyard here, and I agree with you that there is.  But it's also clear to me and the others, that every time you come to the barnyard you bring a fox in with you.  Frankly, it's that fox that’s causing a lot of our commotion." 

In his kind and professional manner, he told her that she was a major player in the problems about which she complained, and that if she was not willing to be part of the solution, she was definitely going to continue to be a major cause of the problem. It was obvious that she was stunned.  For a multitude of reasons, some good and some not so good, her peers, previous CEOs, and for a time even the current CEO, had permitted her to, at least proverbially, rule the roost as the team showoff and bully.  He closed the meeting assuring her that she was welcome, in fact needed, on the team, but that in the future, she should tie the fox outside when she came to meetings!