5.5 Apply Your Knowledge
You have learned the benefit of using influence to help co-workers solve workplace conflicts and problems. Now, it is your turn to practice this skill.
Read – the following case study. Create a script demonstrating your ability to resolve a workplace conflict by positively influencing the outcome.
The Company:
Albums by Allan Ltd.The People:
Riley Atom (She/Her): Human Resources Manager
Allan Reese (He/Him): Owner
The Scenario:
Allan owns Albums by Allan Ltd., a medium-sized recording studio. Over the past year, Riley (the Human Resources Manager) has received several resignation letters from the recording technicians at Albums by Allan. Riley always conducts an exit interview with each employee before they leave the company to determine what caused them to look elsewhere for work.
Riley has been surprised to learn that Allan hasn’t provided his employees with immediate feedback when there is an issue with their performance. Instead, Allan conducts a performance review yearly and saves all of his input for twelve months. The employees are shocked to learn they have performance issues in the first place, and then they know their performance issues were identified up to twelve months ago. The recording technicians are frustrated and furious.
In addition, the recording technicians share that customers are calling them to ask what’s up with Allan these days. Customers are apparently calling Allan, leaving voice messages, and never receiving a callback. Some customers have started sending Allan email requests to call them back, but Allan never reaches out to them. The customers have shared that they are considering moving their business to another recording studio if Allan can’t act like a businessperson and return their calls.
Employee Observations and Customer Observations:
“I will move my business to another recording company if Allan can’t take the time to return my call. I have some urgent business to discuss with him.”
“Working for Allan is beyond frustrating. He has a problem with my work but didn’t tell me about it for a year. Then, he sprung everything on me during my performance review. This was all news to me. I’m out of here!”
The Conversation:
You are playing the role of Riley, HR Manager at Albums by Allan. You need to sit down with Allan and use your influencing skills to assist Allan with promptly providing timely feedback to his employees and returning customer calls. Your script should be a minute long when you read it out loud. Good luck, you can do it!
The Exercise:
