Leading Organization Question on Fitting

Leading Organization Question on Fitting In

Reflect on an experience (eg. group/team work, job experience, college choice, etc.) where you felt like you just didn't fit in. Using the material from the video lecture and class, explain what caused this feeling. What could have been done differently to make the situation better? Using the benefit of hindsight, what advice would you give your former self if you were starting over? If the situation is still ongoing, are there practical steps you can take to improve the situation?

Having worked at an internship for over a year at a local business, when the opportunity arose to become an assistant manager and take over many of reporting and supervisory duties, I immediately applied. Within three weeks, the job was mine. Settling in to run the reporting and analysis areas of the company, I designed the organization around me with the concepts learned in the class including intensive use of the OCEAN strategies for management, evaluating terminal and instrumental values of subordinates, and attempting to bring a high level of leadership to the role. I also set up an incentive system for customer service representatives that would pay them a bonus of $100 extra a month for every five letters from customers received praising them for their service. Five letters in 30 days is difficult yet achievable if a customer servife rep is excelling at their job.

On my fifth week in the new assistant manager role, the owners of the company called me into their office to introduce me to the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. He had known the owners for years, and was highly regarded by them. He new COO, Allan, was cordial, professional yet distant. He explained during the conversation that the organization as it was needed major change, and he had just the team to do it. Within two weeks he had a new director-level person in, a woman he obviously was attracted to and thought very highly of professionally. I was reporting to her, and she immediately dismantled the incentive program and stopped many of the programs I had in place. Increasingly they would go out to lunch together with friends from their old company, and within six weeks, another manager was hired. That week I was called into the COO's office and he told me that instead of running reporting and analysis I was to train all customer service reps on a new system they had been avoiding -- and bad mouthing -- for years. I felt pushed aside, everyone in the company knew the system he asked me to train them on was a relic, it had been around for over a decade and maybe 10% of the company used it. I accepted the challenge, went to work on training the employees. During that time the new COO had several offsites that included the new management team, none of us who had been at the company before. The attitude of the new management team was "we're here to clean this place up." I increasingly felt like I didn't fit in and eventually left for another job.