Example reflection – Storytelling

Challenge

The challenge I faced, was to work on an important strategic project with one of my colleagues, who  had increasingly become very temperamental at work coupled with regular absenteeism.

As a marketing professional, I often have to design strategies with my sales counterparts. I had an  experience of working with this particular co-worker on a previous assignment and I had found him  to be responsible & pro-active. He would participate in discussions enthusiastically and always have  innovative suggestions to share. Off late, I had found him to be very temperamental, disinterested at  work and frequently being absent. So, when the time came for us to get started on a project  together, instead of jumping straight into the facts & numbers, I invited him to have lunch with me. I  discussed about our family lives and his face lit up as he had recently become a father to a lovely  baby girl. He slowly opened up about how our boss didn’t give him enough time on a daily basis and  rarely included him in strategy meetings. He felt ignored and was often saddled with work that could  not be completed by other colleagues.

His ideas and plans for his product division were mostly ignored and this discouraged him massively.  Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that he wasn’t given his paternity leave. He admitted that he was  applying to other job openings & missed work often to attend interviews. He felt terrible that, other  sales heads were performing far better and that he felt really left behind.

Selection

Storytelling is a tool that works very well for me, especially at my work place. In today’s day & age of  instant solutions & reduced inter-personal connect, I believe strongly in being a good listener. I am a  sensitive and intuitive person by nature and often use this methodology to strengthen inter-personal  relations and establish a positive work atmosphere.

I decided to use this methodology as it has previously worked very well for me in identifying the root  cause of a problem, which actually may go beyond the day-to-day work activities. It helps me  empathize with a co-worker’s actual problem and gives me an opportunity to find an amicable  solution.

Application

I decided to approach this situation by sharing a similar experience, I had had not too long ago. I  wanted to help him come up with a solution to tackle this problem, just as I had.  I narrated my tale  where in a few months ago, I felt harassed, over worked & ignored by my boss in a previous division,  where I had worked earlier. I mentioned that this happened on a daily basis, despite me completing  my tasks on time, never missing any deadline and had me really worried.

So stressed out was I, that it started affecting my health. I summed up my guts & decided to tackle  the problem. If I absolutely didn’t find a solution, I had decided to quit.  I confronted my then boss  about these problems and being a very poor listener, he didn’t really seem to care. I ended my  conversation abruptly by saying that if I wasn’t treated fairly; I was definitely going to further  escalate the problem to senior leaders and human relations. Since, he didn’t really respond to this as  well, I decided to further escalate this problem. Not only did my seniors hear me out & reprimand  my then reporting manager, I was also granted a transfer to another division, which I am now  currently a part of. After hearing me out, my colleague told me that he would try talking to our boss  first, which he had been resisting for quite some time.

About a couple of weeks later, my colleague over coffee told me how he had finally requested for a  meeting with our boss and had a very lengthy discussion. He mentioned that he had poured his  heart out and had finally amicably resolved his problem. He seemed happier and raring to go on our  project, in which I had great experience working with him.

Insight

The insight I gained was that ‘hearing somebody out’ and empathizing with a co-worker goes a long  way in maintaining long term work relations. It created a happier environment to work in and  increased motivation levels.

This success has confirmed to the story telling methodology I have used previously. It’s easy to snap  at a co-worker and pin point mistakes. But once story telling is applied to such a situation, it seems  to create a win-win situation for all at work

Approach

In case I am faced with any such similar situation at work, I will continue to apply my ‘storytelling’  methodology, as it has always worked well for me. Perhaps next time around, I will aim to move a bit  faster, trying to trim the problem at the start, before it snow balls into something serious. I will also  aim to sensitize other team members towards a challenge / problem faced by a team member, if I  am aware of it, as barriers break, when people talk.

When it comes to handling problems of such a sensitive nature, I believe this methodology works  best over others.

