George celebrated with a drink after work on Friday.
He sees himself as the saviour.
He is vital & gets results & so follows his Friday after work drinks bragging!
George is someone who jumps into action & gets things done.
A real-life business superhero. What more could a business want!
During the board meeting George decided to take the bull by the horns (this isn’t unusual).
He figured that one of the main reasons businesses fail, aside from being undercapitalised, is that they can’t make decisions.
It frustrates him when a business becomes hamstrung by its inability to make the tough decisions in a timely manner.
His colleague Peter was opting to do nothing - let’s wait and see, we mustn’t be too hasty.
Jumping into new technology is not something to tackle lightly, aside from the cost!
Well, for George the mindset of doing nothing through apathy, or a fear of making a decision, is a disaster.
He decided they needed the new systems and now!
So George made a unanimous decision (as only George can do!).
Action alpha swept through the office, leaving the rest of the board in his wake.
He was in his usual no nonsense, non-stop & purposeful mode.
Well, you can imagine how they felt.
George’s behaviour is so often at their expense.
They are collateral damage & the team suffers.
Unbeknownst to him his ‘team’ find him a necessary evil. Or perhaps an unnecessary evil. And so it was on Friday last week.
Businesses do need action people, however profits before people, colleagues feelings trashed & trampled in the rush does not bode well .
George is never a team player - he is gruff, impatient & intolerant. With his ‘more haste, even more speed’ motto.
The Friday ‘team’ across town were bemoaning George & his fate.
Is this the end of the road?
Peter claims that George is hard to follow as he fires off in all directions.
Stephanie claims that he has led them well sometimes, but the other five feel the angst that he leaves because he is pushy, opinionated & quite frankly insufferable.
What then are they to do.
George is a great asset but is pushy, selfish & opinionated.
Far too self important to be a team player.
Richard wonders how it will land with George - does he even realise how unpopular he is?
Stephanie muses that she doesn't think so as he is so caught up in himself and how ‘right’ he is (even when he is wrong).
In fact he is often wrong but will twist the situation like a politician until he finds a way to make himself right.
By which time the discussion is far off course and no results are obtained.
So how can you harness the action & not destroy the organisation’s culture and harmony?
Here's where I come in.
George needs a coach. Its a long road - because he doesn't have the awareness.
He is beginning to see a new perspective but there is plenty of mindset changing to go yet.
We don't want to lose George but to get the best out of him we do need more team playing - and a bit of good old fashioned 'niceness'.
Like with kids - don’t take the ball from them and dribble the ball, instead, run along beside them, encouraging from the side-line. But unless the alpha has the awareness he wont stop until his batteries run out or poor health takes him over.
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