Can you walk me through a situation where you had to encourage a colleague to perform better?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

At Auctane, we had a legacy system which my team was re-architecting to
microservices, this meant learning new tools on cloud. One of the tenured
engineer was relutant to learn new tech and process. This impacted the teams
velocity - I had a meeting with him and explained that him ramping up on new
technology was not only necessary but also helpful for his feature. By instlling
the growth mindset and showing that his efforts will be benefetial to him in the
long run, I could motivate him to learn new tools and be a more productive
employee.

Anonymous · Answer

I would like to reflect on recent situation where a committed and skilled person
worked in isolation. the engineer A is excellent BI architect and developer.
When he has full control over data input he prepares great reports that makes
cross-func users happy.
At a recent project in Q4 A needed inputs from another system. He needed to work
with infrastructure person B and data engineer S. 
I noticed that A was cc-ing me on a lot of chats and emails. At first I did not
react to that, but at one point I got email asking to reprioritize tasks for S.

I understood that the collaboration was a challenge and decided to intervene. My
task was to ensure that S has positive work environment and A is able to work
cross functionally without engaging manager.

I reached out to S to confirm that her response quoting her current commitments
is a right one. I thanked her for the support of her current projects and help
she did for A. I made sure she is not feeling pressured because of high
visibility reports and SVP titles that need work done by A

Then I reached to A. I previously coached him to be more collaborative, but that
change does not happen overnight. I asked his permission to share the feedback
with him. Once he agreed, I replayed the situation from S's point of view.

I shared that A does excellent job. However he can not be successful alone. In
order to complete the project we need full buy-in from B and S. If they feel
that the project is not dear to them we will not be able to support the feature
in production.

I suggested that the conversation is for enabling A to grow. We both discussed
and agreed that learning more BI or analytics technology will not help A to
grow. He is fully on par with tech part. However to grow he needs to be able to
deliver and lead larger and larger projects. That perspective ignited interest
in A. I found him listening and learning.

In the short term I offered A a workaround that will be enough for practical
purposes.  We worked with A on long term plan:
A defined "go-to" state for the project. He shares that state with B and S.
Three of them working together will decide what can be done and when.

I purposely decided not to meet with A and others in a common troubleshooting
meeting. That would not be effective.

As result A used short-term approach and worked with A and S. The harmony of
them working together was restored after a couple chats over 2-3 days. The
project was done on track. Now A and B and S developed working relationships
that no longer rely on manager in cc.
thank you

Can you walk me through a situation where you had to encourage a colleague to perform better?

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