Let's just say that this is a hypothetical situation.
Person A is the chairperson of a school club and there is a group of fellow school mates of various nationalities working under him. Person A also has a Singaporean vice-chairperson who has suddenly said that he is leaving for an exchange program in a month's time. Now, the main conflict lies in the fact that A has an extremely busy schedule other than his club's activities and thus is always delegating duties to the other members of the management committee working with him. Person A normally does not hang around with the committee members and is seldom seen at the club. Given his heavy schedule, A also does not like to be involved in non-official social activities. Initially, the committee was still able to function adequately to ensure the smooth implementation of club activities and projects. However, A soon felt distant from his committee members and started to face difficulties in convincing his fellow committee members to finish their tasks on time. On the other hand, the rest of the committee felt that their leader was only capable of delegating work and did not really do any significant work. However, they have overlooked the fact that A is always involved with activities of the "higher scale" such as meetings with the school authorities and other clubs. In addition, the rest of the committee was also unaware that A was feeling overwhelmed by all his activities which include giving tuitions and doing some voluntary work. It also did not help that his vice-chairperson was not contributing much to the management of the club activities as he was busy with his preparation for the exchange program.
If you were Person A, what will you do to alleviate this tense and tricky situation?
Hey Kenny,
ReplyDeleteI guess if I were person A, the complicated situation would leave me with no choice but to have a heart-to-heart chat with the fellow committee members. When being in a position of authority, you are constantly being assessed by those not in power. Furthermore, if you appear distanced from your members, the divide between leader and committee member gets bigger. The members may start gathering in groups and may pass comments about their leader in his/her absence which can really exaggerated the negative qualities of the leader and downplay the positive ones. People tend to forget the good deeds easily but remember the negative ones like they were etched in stone.
Hence, if Person A were to have a chat expressing his problems and everything that is going on with his life, the committee members will soon realise that he is only human. They will also know that Person A is not being LAZY and irresponsible but is instead doing the best that he can with his busy schedule. I am sure the rest of the committee will be understanding when a silent leader suddenly shares something very personal.
After the personal chat, Person A should try his best to set aside time to socialise with his members. The relationship is very essential if you want others to gladly accepted delegated work without any disgruntles. It is always easier to delegate than to be at the receiving end. So keep the receivers happy and everything should go on smoothly (:
Cheers, Jivs
Hi Kenny,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jivs, I think that A should try and socialise with other members of the club to build up good relationship with them. A should try to get involve in non-official social activities as this is a good opportunity to mix well with others.
Besides that, I think that A should let the other know that he is a responsible leader and he does not delegate his job. This can be done by appointing one person among those committee to do the jobs of the vice-chairperson. This can make other know how heavy is the workload of being a chair-person and vice-chairperson.
Xian Rui
Hi Kenny,
ReplyDeleteIf I were in A's shoes, I would make an effort to meet up with the rest of the committee members. In this case, A has some explaining to do and it would seem more sincere if A could talk to everyone face to face.
A should let the others know that he has to juggle other commitments on top of this school club, while the vice-chairperson is unable to help out much due to his preparation for the exchange program. This way, the members would understand that A was not pushing all the work to them on purpose.
Perhaps, everyone could also vote for a temporary vice-chairperson, to replace the current one until he is back from the exchange program. Taking into account everyone's opinion is important, so that they will all feel as if they are part of the club.
In addition, it would help if A could participate and interact more with the other members during non-official social activites. This can strengthen the bond A has with his members and improve their working relationship.
Gwen
Hi Kenny
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I think person A is definitely taking in more tasks then he can handle. Which begs the question, is he acting irresponsibly by biting off more then he can chew? Might it be a better idea if he foregoes some of his responsibilities and focus on the few left so that he could improve on his performance?
Back to alleviating the situation, person A should call for a meeting with his members and explain the situation to them, highlighting on his responsibilities that are not noticed. Person A could also involve his subordinates in the meetings with other clubs and school authority so that they could get a better picture of his responsibilities. However, person A should avoid his explanation session from degenerating into an ‘excuse giving’ session by focusing on explaining his responsibilities and not defending himself from accusations of slothfulness.
A talk with the vice president is also in order. This should be done privately away from the eyes of the members. Ask him for his help to solve the problem that A is facing, as he is also part of the management. An accusatory tone should not be used. Perhaps if he comes to his senses that he is not helping in the committee, he try his best to do more or possibly resign so that a more suitable candidate could take over.
Jon
You do a fairly good job of describing this problem scenario, Kenny. The details of A's hectic life are clear. I must admit that I find this statement a bit odd: " ...the main conflict lies in the fact that A has an extremely busy schedule other than his club's activities and thus is always delegating duties to the other members of the management committee working with him."
ReplyDeleteThat doesn't sound like a conflict to me; it sounds like a survival strategy.
What's the conflict? You've told me what A feels, and how some members of the committee may view his action/style of management. But what exactly is the conflict in interpersonal terms?
Hi Brad,
ReplyDeleteI guess this episode of interpersonal conflict is a combination of a few probable issues:
a) The failure in effective communication between the leader and his or her fellow workers and thus contributing to the lack of empathy on either side. (Primarily)
b) The differences in perceptions of the chairperson’s role in a club between A and his or her co-workers
c) The possible slipshoddiness in implementing a complete and successful delegation process by A.
Hey Kenny,
ReplyDeleteThere definitely needs to be a group meeting involving all the entire management committee (MC). If the MC is not working as smoothly as it should (or used to) this meeting should be a session where the member are able to voice out there concerns and reservations as to what may be going on. For instance, A probably does not know that he’s MC thinks that he is not doing his share of work. This would tend to create little friction. So the MC should actually bring this issue up.
Also, the meeting would be a good platform to re-instate the function and scope of each position in the MC. Everyone, Person A, would be reminded of what their roles are; what their purpose in the organization is. If Person A believes he has been doing his share of work, he should explain why he believes so.
Person A will need to be honest and acknowledge his hectic schedule due to which he often is unable to attend the social outings. He should start making a genuine effort in keeping the communication lines open between him and his MC.