by 
Entrepreneurs learn the hard way. I met recently with partners of a start up renewable energy company. They recounted a story of one of their early employees who had been with them from the start. This individual lost the “passion” for the mission some time ago, but for some reason or other was still in place, still plugging along.
One of the partners had an emotional need not to confront the performance and enthusiasm issues, so this disconnect slowly turned into ire, and distrust, and a lack of positive regard among the key players.
This partner reported having a “fuzzy” boundary in his concepts of acceptable and unacceptable employee engagement, so his Knower/Judger found it difficult to “pull the trigger” and begin the discussion with this employee. The struggle ensued. The stress was enormous.
Another of the partners had reached a point where a decision was made (his boundary between acceptable and unacceptable employee engagement had been breached) and opened the exploratory (Leaner/Researcher data) dialog with this employee.
Lo and behold it was as if a shroud had been lifted. The three parties discussed the lack of enthusiasm of the employee to which he agreed entirely. It was time for him to move on. But Partner One’s K/J couldn’t start the conversation because he felt he “owed” something to the employee. And the employee couldn’t start the conversation frankly because no matter how uncomfortable he was, his K/J didn’t allow him to confront the issue of his own lack of enthusiasm. By the other partner’s L/R “brokering” the conversation, the company jettisoned an employee who was not contributing and the employee moved on to bigger and better things….all still friends.
Lesson: Use your K/J to establish clear boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable (in just about anything). Your life experiences and other educational data can contribute to this wisdom, but organize it so the boundary is crisp and clean, eliminating fuzzy limits. Let your L/R seek out data that helps you stay clear on which side of the acceptable/unacceptable line the situation resides.
Kim DeMotte – Corporate CoDriver has developed tools and programs for teams who value increased trust, understanding and camaraderie. Call him at (877) 245-8251.
“There is a clear and present danger when we are neither clear nor present”
