COF_Christina Mason Revised Inst : simplebooklet.com

Scenario Overview You are Christina Mason a manager working for Aspect Technology one of Learning is Fun s smaller business units based in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania It is now 3 15 PM on Friday afternoon On a normal Friday you would expect to spend the next hour or so meeting with your staff to discuss and resolve problems review the status of key accounts and prepare for the regular crush of items coming in from various other accounts before the weekend But today is not a normal Friday In 15 minutes at 3 30 PM you will be going into a two hour meeting with your boss Nancy Parker the Regional Sales Director of Aspect Technology and Bob Smythe another Sales Director in the Aspect Technology office Together you represent an ongoing task force working to improve client relationships one of the top priorities coming out of Corporate Headquarters in Connecticut You are kicking off the meeting with a status report so you must attend and you must be there on time It will take you five minutes to walk to the meeting room During the next 10 minutes a number of your direct reports and colleagues want to see you Naturally you canceled your normal afternoon sessions but these staff members are waiting outside your office hoping to see you even if only briefly All of them need to talk with you before the task force meeting today you cannot follow up with them after the meeting because at 5 30 PM sharp you will be going directly to the airport for a long overdue 25th wedding anniversary trip You will be out of the office for the next two weeks and the people waiting to see you are only too conscious of this fact The people waiting to see you include Anne Senior Technical Support Specialist who often fills in as your second in command Joe Account Manager Kim Account Manager Bill Account Manager Julie an old friend who is another manager at Aspect Technology You know who is waiting to see you and have some ideas about why they may want to meet Anne Senior Technical Support Specialist

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Anne Senior Technical Support Specialist Although Anne is a Senior Technical Support Specialist and technically your direct report she is also the person you expect to lead the team in your absence She is experienced and well liked In addition both Bob and Nancy the other managers in the Aspect Technology office already have plenty to do with their own folks while you are out of the office Anne has been the point person on the Release 5 implementation of the Datext Solution System DSS an elaborate new client management and underwriting software system developed out of LIF s Headquarters in Connecticut DSS is being rolled out to all operations Although officially called an update in your view it is a major system change requiring careful planning management and training efforts You put Anne in charge because you thought it would be an excellent developmental opportunity for her In doing so you deliberately took a hands off approach to managing Anne You didn t want to put any additional pressure on her and you felt that managing her too closely might make her feel like you were looking over her shoulder So you ve kept your distance and remained low key about the project Yesterday Anne was in Connecticut meeting with some of the technical people and programmers on the DSS update In your view maintaining open communications with these individuals is critical to the ultimate success of the project Unfortunately the day did not go well You got a phone call last night from another manager who had also attended the meeting Evidently Anne got into a protracted argument over some system features that will require Aspect Technology to modify several of its procedures procedures you personally pushed for a few years back It s a bad sign at this stage of the project You feel very uneasy about being away from Pittsburgh on vacation just as trouble may be brewing with folks at LIF Headquarters You wonder whether you should step in at this critical juncture and provide more direct guidance to Anne and the project Working effectively with Headquarters is a political skill Anne needs to develop but she won t ever develop it if you do all the key tasks for her You wonder if Anne understands how essential it is to maintain constructive relationships with key resources in Connecticut You also wonder whether she allowed any Headquarter vs Aspect office bias to negatively influence her behavior It s not always easy to work with Headquarters but it can also be easy to forget that your LIF counterparts have to consider the interests of all the business units not just Aspect Technology Sometimes their solutions aren t optimal for Aspect Technology just as sometimes they are not optimal for any of LIF s other business units A single system for the whole of LIF inevitably involves some compromises Kim Account Manager

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Kim Account Manager Kim is bright enthusiastic and dedicated to her work though she is relatively new to her role Her previous work was with LIF s research facility and as a Market Research Specialist in Staff Marketing at Corporate Headquarters Six months ago she was assigned to be one of your Account Managers The folks at Corporate Headquarters in Connecticut apparently did not want to lose someone with her obvious talent Aspect Technology has thus far been a tough proving ground for her She was initially assigned a few smaller accounts but her go getter spirit led her to ask for some bigger accounts most recently she picked up Mollewood Exports and HomeCare Products Each client has its own distinctive challenges politics and personality and you are worried that Kim is finding her job overwhelming As such you ve personally taken some pains to ensure that Kim has not been set up to fail You regularly drop by her office to be visible and provide support for her You don t want her to feel abandoned You also don t want to over manage Kim You ve tried to lend a hand directly to her by providing your support with her client engagements when the need arises For example Mollewood Export recently rolled out Aspect s Advanced Accident Prevention Safety Training for its 1 500 construction personnel While the course launch was originally dubbed a success Mollewood recently switched to a new Learning Management System LMS which has had a lot of unforeseen integration issues with Aspect s e learning products The other day while Kim was at HomeCare you were notified by Mollewood s Director of Product Management that the Advanced Accident Prevention Safety Training was not running on their LMS As a result you and the Director of Product Management called Mollewood s LMS Training Administrator to troubleshoot the technical issues in realtime The call was so effective everyone agreed it should become a weekly staple with the LMS Training Administrator Kim and the Director of Product Management until the issues were fixed E learning solutions are Aspect Technology s bread and butter While Kim s apparent commitment to applying relationship management is a real asset you re now concerned that her approach to ensuring the successful launch of e learning products within her client accounts still seems somewhat inflexible You know that she typically emails extensive monthly reports to her clients that document account updates and technical troubleshooting recommendations You also know that such a uniform approach won t work for every client some clients require a more tailored approach The Mollewood situation highlighted the need for Kim to call the client directly instead of just sending off emailed reports This is not to say that Kim has not taken well to the Good to Great initiative nor account management in general She has made it a point to get to know her portfolio of clients and she holds regular round table discussions with her clients and with her account teams She s a very personable woman which her clients largely recognize Additionally it s rare that you have a female Account Manager at Aspect Technology another reason you want her to succeed If you have any time today you might try Kim Account Manager Continued to explain to Kim the value of a tailored approach for certain client scenarios a uniform cookie cutter approach doesn t always work She has to be proactive in order to service client issues effectively This means responding to client requests in a timely fashion proactively connecting with them to find out what support they need and then determining how best to service those needs As a relatively new Account Manager Kim hasn t yet developed the full range of skills and experience to anticipate these challenges

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Bill Account Manager Bill Account Manager Bill is a valuable long time employee He began working at LIF part time while still in college and continued after graduation working mainly as an Account Coordinator for Aspect Technology He has worked as an Account Manager full time for the past eight years American Chemical is his main focus You don t know anyone who understands the ins and outs of the Aspect business better than he does Bill could write a book about it In many ways he is a model of stability and reliability Lately however you ve been more than a little perplexed by Bill s behavior It used to be that you could set your watch by Bill s arrival in the office provided that you were here at 7 30 AM when he habitually appeared Now it seems that you seldom see him coming in before 9 00 AM and he disappears quickly after 5 00 PM In fairness his work does not require a rigid adherence to the clock but these work habits are noticeably out of place in a business that prides itself on a strong work ethic For that matter they are noticeably uncharacteristic of Bill Bill s been doing his job so long he could probably do it in his sleep Sleep incidentally is one thing Bill doesn t seem to be getting much of lately He looks rather haggard In addition until quite recently Bill was a little on the heavy side Now he looks like he s lost a good deal of weight He d probably look better if he put a little back on Of course this isn t really any of your business so you haven t discussed it with Bill He s a professional in his work and behavior and you ve treated him accordingly Nevertheless you are concerned by the new pattern of behavior You assume Bill wants to talk to you about the small project you recently assigned to him to look into cost savings in office supplies Aspect sometimes spends up to 10 000 per month on supplies a significant amount that you are sure can be reduced by re evaluating both usage patterns and suppliers You could really use some big savings here because the Aspect office is under severe budget pressure Last year Aspect s expense ratio was one of the highest of all the offices in LIF a kind of visibility neither Nancy Parker the Regional Sales Director of Aspect nor you were looking for You are so determined to reduce next year s costs that you re seriously considering eliminating the Account Coordinator position that is currently vacant even though you know everyone could use the help That being said the whole office knows that now is the time to be watching every penny On the supplies project you strongly encouraged Bill to visit the LIF office in Detroit because it is known for its high efficiency and low expenses A first hand view provides insights that more than pay back any incremental travel costs Bill has promised you a progress report for today He normally does these in writing and the two of you meet to review the high points Today you are pressed for time so hopefully Bill can just drop off the written report and you ll take it with you on vacation

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Joe Account Manager Joe Account Manager Joe handles one of Aspect Technology s largest and potentially most profitable accounts called Kensington Corp It s a very fast paced and productionoriented environment over there Traditionally Account Manager s have been compensated strictly on the basis of their performance evaluations which were keyed to margin increases they achieved on their accounts and otherwise just being a good employee Recently LIF began focusing increased attention on the new Good To Great initiative that emphasized creating a detailed Technology Migration Plan for all large accounts across each business unit The Technology Migration Plan is intended to be a joint plan developed by the Account Manager and the client This plan should include prioritization of technology options budget and commitment by the client to a timetable for completing milestones Joe is supposed to be working closely with his teammates to adopt this new approach While much of the work needs to be completed by the Content Web Developers and his Account Coordinator Joe is responsible for making sure that the completed Technology Migration Plan includes the requisite level of commitment by the key decision makers at the client So far especially in the case of Kensington Corp you are concerned that he is caught up in the day to day minor crises that are prevalent at every large account It appears that Joe hasn t stepped back to consider the bigger picture account strategy You have told him to utilize his regular round table team meetings to collect information from his team and cross functional stakeholders on the status of technology migration at the account Round table meetings are relatively new at LIF and are a part of the Good to Great initiative that senior leadership has recently launched The round table approach is intended to place Account Managers in the same room as their teammates Account Coordinators Web Content Developers Instructional Designers and Product Managers along with cross functional stakeholders from other parts of the business to have an open give and take dialogue and goal setting session In addition LIF Headquarters has begun to ask about the use of the round table approach in their marketing audits Unfortunately Joe has not been holding his round table meetings regularly and members of his account teams feel considerably less empowered than their peers who are working with other Account Manager s To date Joe has not held a round table meeting on his major clients including Kensington Corp for the last three months You worry that Joe is still operating with the old I m the expert you listen approach Kensington Corp is in the middle of completing a major acquisition in China Kensington s hope is to rollout some new employee e learning products to their new business This would involve ensuring Aspect s products could migrate onto the learning management platform at the new business This has of course put a lot of time pressure on Joe and his team When pressured Joe tends to adopt a high control style of management You wish Joe could just learn to let go a little bit and empower his team a bit more so that they could collaboratively work together to manage the client account If he delegated listened and worked with his team more he would not only achieve better short term results but also develop the management skills necessary for a promotion

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Julie Manager Julie Manager Julie is an old friend and another manager in Aspect s Pittsburgh office She is someone you get together with on a regular basis although usually outside of work You often see her and her family and the two of you usually watch at least one Steelers game each fall At work you normally have lunch once a month together You know Julie has been going through some difficult times this year A few months ago she was passed over for a promotion within LIF as a Director of Sales a position she wanted very badly In your view however you thought her expectations were unrealistic In fact you thought it was good news when Julie didn t get the position You were worried she would wind up in over her head and possibly fail In your view another year or so of experience in her current job will serve Julie well She ll probably get promoted the next time around too As a friend however you have kept these thoughts to yourself Julie took it very hard when she didn t get the promotion so you confined yourself to sympathy reassurance and support That s what she seemed to need at the time and as a friend that s what you gave her You wonder though if Julie has dropped in to share some good news Not long ago you had heard through a mutual friend that Julie was on the short list for a Regional Sales Manager position with Palisades Learning one of LIF s competitors Maybe she got the job

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COF_Christina Mason Revised Inst

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