As much as we at VIM Executive Coaching have fond remembrances of the railroad, this isn't a post about rail travel so much as executive leaders who elect to travel a familiar track to achieve an unsuccessful result.
The executive who came to us for coaching was miffed to say the least. She would not be dissuaded from preparing her resume and seeking new employment. Frankly, she was right and we could not blame her.
Favoritism
The executive was the director of manufacturing and quality assurance for a mid-sized manufacturer of agricultural and landscaping equipment. She reported to the executive vice president who was the heir apparent to the president and founder of the organization.
The problem was her peer, the director of purchasing. No one in the organization trusted him. He was a football player at the same university the founder attended. In fact, he had two mediocre seasons in the NFL. He was the subject of a collegiate scandal. The founder and the purchasing director apparently socialized a great deal before the president had hired him.
The director of purchasing had been rumored to have taken bribes. The president and founder said he "looked into it" and the rumors, in his opinion, were unfounded.
About a month prior to the director of manufacturing and quality assurance coming to VIM Executive Coaching, her department received two truckloads of defective parts from an unknown supplier.
When she went to the director of purchasing with a complaint, she was rebuked for "not staying in her lane." She then went to the president and complained that not only were the parts substandard but per normal procedure, the prototypes weren't even submitted for testing. There were additional rumors of payoffs.
He shrugged and told her: "Let's face it, you just don't like the guy."
The Lack of Awareness
The president was content to overlook the obvious because he was more committed to a personal relationship than to be authentic and mindful about what was good for the organization. There was no weight given to the stories of bribery and inappropriate behaviors. There was no thought in his mind that his showing favoritism was costing his organization.
When a lack of mindfulness results in allowing favoritism – or worse, it is very much like a train heading down a track to a "no-good" destination. The abandoned station analogy we used is symbolic of so many organizations and executive leaders who pursue a destination where there is little in the way of positive return.
Were the president and founder honest with the situation, it might have readily been seen that in not being mindful and awake to the true situation the result was costing the organization its most precious commodity: people.
In showing favoritism in this case, damage was clearly done to its production and quality but more so to the company's reputation. We have seen this scenario played out a hundred times, and it never ends well.
The only positive outcome to this situation, we suppose, is that the quality failures did not spill over into the media. However, the true failure was the inability of the president and founder to be mindful and conscious of the true cost of where bias and the lack of mindfulness leads.
At the last conversation with the executive who came to us for coaching was that she is quite pleased in her new position and that the director of purchasing left the company.
Unfortunately, all of the turmoil could have been averted had the company learned that the only track they should have taken was that of authenticity in dealing fairly with everyone.