Leadership’s Future: How Will They Lead?
by Miki SaxonI received the following email yesterday (edited for length and anonymity).
Miki,
With 20+ years of experience managing I thought I had seen it all, but I have a situation that I am at a loss on how to handle.
Short version, 6 months ago I hired an entry level engineer, with just a year of experience, but lots of potential I thought. Potential he is not living up to. I do not see the energy, initiative and go-get-’em attitude he projected in the interview. His peers complain that he is not pulling his weight and he acts as if showing up and performing at minimal level is enough. He has received positive input when he does something well, but I have been candid regarding the problems, offered suggestions for improving, etc., and blunt talk that if both his work and his attitude didn’t change he couldn’t stay.
So when all this came up again in his 6 month review I was taken aback when he acted like it was the first time he had heard any of this. OK, I’ve run into denial before, nothing new there.
But what totally floored me and the main reason for writing is that the day after his review I received a phone call from his parents (they were both on the line) demanding to know who the hell I thought I was not to give their son a 6 month promotion.
I said I was in a meeting and would get back to them; any suggestions besides the obvious none of your damn business.
I called him and after a bit more discussion he agreed that it would be best to turn this mess over to the company HR department. Fortunately, they were already aware of the problem and he had plenty of documentation to back up both the performance problems and the ongoing conversations about them.
The parental call was the final nail and the young man will be terminated for cause.
We all read articles about helicopter parents, in fact, I just read one on how great a problem hovering is for colleges.
Some undergraduate officials see in parents’ separation anxieties evidence of the excesses of modern child-rearing. “A good deal of it has to do with the evolution of overinvolvement in our students’ lives,” said Mr. Dougharty of Grinnell. “These are the baby-on-board parents, highly invested in their students’ success. They do a lot of living vicariously, and this is one manifestation of that.”
What really angered me was the way the episode affected the manager. He found himself questioning his own skills, as if he could have done anything that would offset 23 years (and counting) of parental protection.
What chance do any of these coddled kids have at maturing into leaders, not only positional ones, but de facto leaders? Will their parents help articulate a vision and then chastise those who don’t follow?
What do you think?
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilsonb/2897692632/
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August 27th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I’m not sure what my generation is doing wrong as parents and where we came up with our ideas but something is wrong when we are turning out adults that can’t handle their own situations in life. I can’t imagine my father ever thinking my employer was wrong. I was taught to give my employer my full attention when I was working and to take responsibility for my actions.
August 27th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Hi Julie, It does make you wonder, doesn’t it? But these days a lot of folks think the attention should focus on them and consider accountability old fashioned—and they aren’t all in their twenties/early thirties, either.