The Leadership Star

6YOU

 

‘I did it!’

Angela beamed as she walked into my office.

‘The first campaign is out the door!’ If it's possible to smile with your whole body, Angela was doing it. She was literally bouncing with enthusiasm.

‘That's fantastic,’ I said. ‘What happened?’

‘Well, I managed to convince John Rock to re‐prioritise the statement run and to let our operations team have access to the system so we can open the new accounts.’

‘Well done! See, I told you you could do it,’ I said with a mischievous grin.

‘Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyway, thanks! I'm taking the team to lunch now … see you later!’ Angela bounced out of the office, leaving behind the infectious glow of her joy.

For the past several months Angela had been in a very different state. Her initial enthusiasm for the role had devolved into frustration and emotional volatility. It seemed that nearly every week she was in my office in tears, angry and frustrated at yet another roadblock that had been thrown in her way, or an obstinate manager who had refused to help.

Angela's ‘campaign manager’ role was a new one, designed to work across the organisation to coordinate direct sales of products to customers, without requiring them to go into a bank branch (this was the mid 1990s, and most sales still required a physical meeting to complete). That meant we — and Angela in particular — were essentially making it up as we went, designing new processes and adapting old technology to a new approach.

This wasn't the way the organisation was ...