“I’m exhausted and thinking of leaving to find something new…I can’t keep going”
This was the first thing Rob said to me when we met over Zoom last year. Rob was an R&D Lab Director. He spent his career tackling hard problems and inspiring others to think ahead and solve problems that didn’t yet exist. But this role had driven him to burnout.
Within this role, he had complete autonomy to manage, design,
and steer his team. But he felt alone and overwhelmed. His company’s HR department consisted of only payroll specialists and one overworked HR Business Partner. He hit a point where he knew he couldn’t continue. Fortunately, he found me after speaking to a friend who’d worked in AWS and knew me in my role as Executive Coach and HR Executive.
Rob had 27 direct reports. He knew this wasn’t sustainable but didn’t know how to design his organization. He was worried that the employees who left their prior jobs to join him would be upset if they didn’t report directly to him. Rob had some experience managing but had never been a leader of leaders before. He confessed he didn’t understand how to choose individuals to lead, or how to set appropriate expectations and coach them.
As we continued to talk over Zoom, I noticed how different he looked from his LinkedIn photo taken just a few years ago. His hair had grayed significantly, he had deepening wrinkles between his eyes, and he looked worn down. The stress of figuring out how to scale was taking a physical toll.
The Path Forward
Rob didn’t want to leave his company. He wanted to be able to do the exciting R&D work while inspiring employees with his passion and knowledge. He acknowledged he was at a loss how to do this when employee issues took up most of his time. He gauged the culture to be positive in the lab, but he was worried employees wouldn’t feel they were continuing to learn and grow because he wasn’t scaling himself.
Working together over several weeks, I helped Ron design a multi-step plan to free up his time, structure his organization and build leadership capability across the lab:
· Developed selection and performance criteria for people managers
· Restructured so that Rob had 4 direct reports
· Coaching engagements with Rob and myself for the next 12 months
· Coaching engagements with each of his directs for the next 6 months
· Built a manager capability training for all his leaders for the calendar year
· Provided on-call services for employee relations and spot coaching for him and his team of 10 hours/week
The Final Score
Changes were implemented slowly but consistently, and everything was communicated to the team. Within two months, we had the new plan in place. Within three, Rob - and his team - began to really embrace the changes. Within six, his team was happier and more productive than ever.
Rob said to me on our last call, “I have my sanity back. I have my job back. This was the best investment I could have made for myself and the future of my team.”
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