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Maria is an account assistant for mid-sized company with three offices in the region. She has worked in this position for almost six years. During this time she has worked for several account managers that have left the organization or has moved to different departments. Maria has developed a very good working relationship with many of the external customers and has developed into the "go-to" person at the office for customer information. Due to the slow economy, sales have been down and the senior executives have decided to consolidate the three local offices. Senior management consulted with Maria's manager, but not with Maria, when gathering information to make the changes. One of the results that came from this reorganization included several changes to Maria's job description and how customer accounts were going to be handled. Maria was not happy with these changes and felt that the changes could also have a negative impact on the customer relationships that have been formed. She wants to share her frustrations about these new changes.
STOP: “What are they thinking? These changes are going to ruin
all of the relationships I have built.” Okay. I need to stop and take a deep
breath and a walk around the building to clear my head. It would be stupid of
me to storm in demanding they listen to me. I need to put together a list of
issues I have. I need to ….
THINK: I can either attempt to change the situation, change the
other person, change myself, or not do anything at all and just stew about it. I
really want senior management to understand my point of view. I am to list all
the customers I have great interpersonal relationships with. Then I will list
all the positive things I bring to the table with each relationship in one
column. The second column I will list how I feel it will negatively affect each
of these relationships. Next I will write the contributions I have brought to
the company these past six years, listing the positive things that are on my
annual reviews to validate my importance to the company. Finally, I will list
my goals with this company and how I feel I can be productive if the company
will listen to my ideas. Once I get all my papers together, I will make an
appointment with my manager to meet.
LISTEN: I feel good that my
manager and senior management has agreed to meet with me. I feel prepared and
armed with data to support my side of the reorganization. I need to remember
however, that a group of people have put the reorganization plan together and
have thought out what they feel will be most beneficial. I need to LISTEN to
their point of view and take deep breaths and continue to LISTEN. I am going to
take notes as they talk and tie it into my thoughts.
COMMUNICATE: OK. It is my turn to talk. I feel prepared, relaxed and I
have success on my side of this conflict. I have copies of paper with the
columns to pass out. Here, I go. “Thank you for meeting with me. I have
concerns about the reorganization and believe I have some ideas that will help
the company save money, but not hurt the relationships that have been built
over the past six years.” “I have listed the clients I have built relationships
with and I am very familiar with the product they want from us.” “Et.al.”
“Thank you again for meeting with me and listening to my plan. I feel like we
can compromise and keep our clients happy.”
Reference
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