You are a top manager who has recently hired by an oil field service company in
ID: 414263 • Letter: Y
Question
You are a top manager who has recently hired by an oil field service company in Oklahoma to help it respond more quickly and proactively to potential opportinities in its market . You report to the chief operating officer (COO), who reports to the CEO , an d you have been on the job for eight months . Thus far you have come up with three initiatives you carefully studied , thought were noteworthy , and proposed and justified to the COO. the COO seemed cautiously interested when you presented the proposals , and each time he indicated he would think about them and discuss them with the CEO because considerable resources were involved. Each time you never heard back from the COO and after a few weeks elapsed, you casually asked the COO if there was any news on the proposal in question.For the first proposal, the COO said, " we think it's a good idea but the timing is off. Let's shelve it ofr the time being and reconsider it next year." For the second proposal , the COO said " Mike [ the CEO] remainded me that we tried that two years ago and it wasn't recieved in the market . I am surprised i didnt remember it myself when you first described the proposal, but it came right back to me once Mike mentioned it". For the third proposal, the COO simply said," we 're not convince it will work." you belived your three proposed initiatives are viable ways to seize opportinities in the marketplace , yet you can not proceed with any of them. Moreover, for each proposal, you invested considerable time and even worked to bring others on board to support the proposal, only to have it shot down by the CEO. when you interviewed for the position , both the COO and the CEO claimed they wanted " an outsider to help them step out of the box and innovate." Yet your expereince to date has been just the opposite . what are you going to do?
Explanation / Answer
It is a common scenario in workplaces where the bosses or the key people of the organisation disapproves of the ideas and strategies that their sub-ordinates recommends. There are times when the decision-makers do not even fully understand the pros and cons of an idea and the benefits that the suggested strategy can bring to the organisation. The given scenario highlights such a situation faced by a new employee, a top manager of an oil field service company in Oklahoma, who is finding it hard to get his proposals through his organisation’s top executives - the CEO and COO. The manager recalls the time from his interview where both the COO and the CEO informed him that as a company, they want to step out of the box and innovate and yet his experiences in the company so far have been exactly opposite. Now, instead of feeling frustrated and disappointed and giving up on his proposals, the manager can take the following course of action that might help him convince the CEO and COO of the company to consider his ideas for implementation:
Agree: The manager should empathise with the CEO and COO and try to understand their concerns behind the disapproval of proposals. By respecting the credibility and integrity of their positions and the vast amount of experience that they might have in the organisation and oil field industry, the manager should agree with their point of view and in addition, should show that he respect and appreciate their apprehensions regarding his suggested proposals. By agreeing with the concerns of the CEO and COO, the manager can show that he is listening and trying to understand their perspective of the situation. It converts the whole dialogue into a collaborative approach from a combative one and open the doors for a deeper dialogue.
Ask: In this stage, the manager can ask for more information (if any) that the CEO and COO needs regarding his proposals to understand what he is trying to convey. There are times when the presented information is not adequate or convincing enough to reach to a conclusion. For example, the COO outrightly rejected the manager’s third proposal saying that they are not convinced if it will work. The manager can ask for their point of worries because of which they do not want to go ahead with a particular proposal. By getting to know what they exactly want, he can get specific feedback and suggestions on which he can work and get back with more substantive arguments and deeper research.
Respond: Here, it is the manager’s opportunity to respond to the apprehensions of the CEO and COO by providing the reasons why he feels a particular strategy might work for the company. As stated above, the reasons should be backed with substantial facts and arguments and should be more convincing than before. The manager can clear the doubts that his bosses might have with the implementation of a certain idea with a structured approach and a well defined and presented solution. The manager will have to ensure that he is as specific as he can and make sure his rationales is geared to the CEO’s and COO’s needs and concerns.
The best thing that the manager can do in this situation is to admit his mistakes and shortcomings in his proposals. Let the CEO and COO know that he appreciate their concerns and that he will get back with a revived idea and possible alternatives.
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