By Gary Markle
What do you do with a disengaged protege?
You have been counting on them to ensure the future success of your company, but of late they just seem so apathetic.
That’s where Jacob, A highly successful podiatrist in Chattanooga, found himself. For the last eighteen months he had been developing Hasim, a recent University of Tennessee graduate, as his eventual successor. Instead of responding with gratitude, however, Jacob felt that Hasim was resorting to a passive aggressive form of minimal compliance. He was yet to establish full-time residence in the city where the practice was located and commuted over a hundred miles every weekend to be with his family.
Jacob’s frustration grew as Hasim repeatedly found ways to avoid his counsel. In order to build and sustain a thriving medical practice, Hasim would need to become known in the local community. Yet he simply wasn’t making himself available for anything after hours or on weekends. As an immigrant to the United States from Turkey working in a small close knit community, it took extra effort to get locals to warm up to him. Jacob was willing to do that work, but could not do it alone. He became increasingly irritated that Hasim was not meeting him halfway.
Could he confront his direct report about not working after hours? Could he demand that he relocate his primary residence? Those were Jacob’s questions to me as a coaching consultant. He wasn’t sure if it was okay to talk about issues that were technically not work related. Jacob’s organization was small, but he didn’t want to raise any issues that might be construed as racially or culturally insensitive. Jacob asked, “Isn’t it kind of true that those issues were quite literally “none of my business?”
My quick and decisive answer to that question was this. “No.”
These issues are sensitive and Hasim may or may not feel comfortable addressing them fully, but the answers to some of these personal questions directly affected the business and its future. The trick is to bring them up in the right way, leveraging the Catalytic Coaching process to deal with them head on.
I can hear the alarm bells going off for those of you with an HR or legal background. There were several layers of complexity here and it seemed the safest route would be to just say “Avoid anything personal.” That reaction is understandable. You have to protect the company from potentially litigious situations, especially where issues of diversity can be involved.
The problem with such an overly cautious approach is that it will often miss the real motives behind problematic behavior, denying that employee and the company a chance for a satisfying resolution. You’ll end up losing a valuable worker. While you may be technically entitled to take action on mediocre behavior or outcomes, you will likely replace the imperfect employee with someone else that’s just imperfect in a different way.
We sat down with Hasim and Jacob dove right in. After examining the yellow Employee Input sheet for this young doctor, we realized where the disconnect had started. In the “What do you want to be when you grow up” section, it was revealed that the very most important long term goal for Hasim and his wife was to ensure that their family stayed rooted in their Turkish culture and maintained their religious beliefs.
With a few gently phrased open but probing questions (“Can you tell me more about what that means?) Jacob discovered that the nearest mosque was located in Atlanta, almost 130 miles away. That meant it was a long trek for Hasim’s family to be a part of the community they felt close to. Hasim’s original commitment was to move to Chattanooga in the first year, but his wife did not find the city comforting. She also grew increasingly negative about his commute and had been pressuring him to move.
Hasim truly appreciated all that the doctor was doing to teach him and he found it difficult to walk away. If it were up to him alone, they’d make the move, but his family’s happiness was a higher priority for him. Knowing in his heart this was not a long-term solution, he didn’t want to become too invested in the practice’s staff, patients, or community. His heart heavy, Hasim hadn’t been sure how to approach Jacob with this dilemma.
Jacob continued deeper, asking Hasim how much longer he wanted to flounder in these uncertain waters. If his needs aren’t being met at the clinic, then was it not time to pursue an option that would help him advance his career while still maintaining a happy home?
Hasim agreed that he wasn’t going to be able to stay at the practice and build the life his family wanted. He elected to amicably leave for another opportunity in Atlanta or another larger city. Jacob agreed to give him a good referral if he was not left high and dry and promised not to speed up the transition such that Hasim would be left without income for an extended period.
With Jacob’s support, Hasim found and took a comparable job working with one of his former classmates in Atlanta. They agreed on a plan for him to help manage the patient load at both practices for a while that worked well for everyone and required a minimal short-term double duty by Hasim.
Utilizing a professional recruiter and leveraging a high caliber HR leader, it took Jacob two months to find a new protege. This new young podiatrist was enthusiastic and driven. She was also a native of Tennessee. Within two years, she successfully made a bid to buy out Jacob’s practice and purchase the building. That deal netted more than $1 million above what Jacob had expected when his only option had been to close the office upon retirement.
The moral of the story is that it’s worth braving the potential sharks to dive down below the surface with your employees. The root of many business problems is often personal in nature. What you discover there could positively impact the course of your company and the career of that team member.
I know the waters can be scary. If you need a diving instructor, let’s schedule a call.
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Garold (Gary) Markle is the creator of Catalytic Coaching and author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review. He brings real world experience from 17 years in HR leadership in major corporations coupled with over 20 years of teaching small and mid-sized organizations how to cultivate their leadership, retain employees, develop their talent, and increase profitability by ditching their detrimental performance reviews for a proven Coaching process.
