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Situation one

You are offered a promotion that will require you to work in a field in which
you have no interest and with people for whom you have little respect. If
you accept the promotion it will, of necessity, take you away from the as yet
unfinished task of building the best team in your sector devoted to a mis-
sion to which you are committed. On the other hand the corporation has a
culture of never asking twice and the promotion, should you take it, will
not only provide you with greater personal security, but with fast track
promotion prospects. In fact it is very likely to take you right to the top in
a few years. You have no obvious successor with the ability or commitment
to complete your mission where you are at present and the new task will
take all your time if you are to succeed.

Choices

1. Take the job. The corporation best understands its needs and if you
have been selected you can make your greatest contribution by
meeting those needs elsewhere if that is what the company expects.

2. Ignore your very strong understanding that the new job will require
your full attention and negotiate a “watching brief” over your old
operation with some sort of dotted line reporting structure that will
enable you to guide your successor and protect the future of the
department to which you are devoted.

3. Refuse the job and complete your present task to such a high standard
that your capabilities and committed would be recognized by all and
the firm would be crazy to block your future progress.

Situation two

You have developed your team to the point where you are able to push deci-
sion-making down to the lowest organizational level capable of making an
informed choice. You have communicated your vision, values and objec-
tives to all so that you can be sure of each individual’s absolute commit-
ment to shared goals. You have passed a major decision to your people
acting as a team. For organizational reasons you have taken their decision
to your CEO for her to “sign off” on it. To your surprise the CEO appears
to be at best lukewarm. “I think you ought to look at this again. It is your
decision and I will back you if you choose to stick with it, but if you are
wrong, and I think that you are, your neck will definitely be on the block.”
You are convinced that the decision is right.

Choices

1. Discuss the situation “from the ground up” with your CEO. Listen to
her objections and, if necessary, throw out the original course of action
and override your team’s decision.

84 Key management questions