Week 21–27 November
She Shot Down a Colleague In a Team Meeting
Then I pulled her in for some fast feedback, grateful for her, despite her prickly disposition
“I can’t believe that you took so long to do this work; this is not what we need,” the lead on the project said. She was shaking her head, looking at a secondary screen, and clicking with apparent irritation.
The analyst on the Zoom call with us looked dejected. My heart went out to her.
“I’ll take it from here; we don’t have time for you to continue producing this kind of work,” the lead continued.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
The lead looked back at the main screen and out to all of us in the virtual meeting. The instant smile stretched her lips but never reached her eyes.
“Okay folks, that’s all for now. Thanks for joining,” she said in an artificially sweet tone before she ended the call for all of us.
This woman has such a very different personality from mine. She is usually short-tempered, appears hostile, prefers to do everything herself, and looks genuinely pained when she smiles. I am super patient; I believe in the power of teamwork, and I smile — a lot.
I am the manager of all the people on the last call.
I ping the lead via Slack.
‘Hi, are you free? I need to chat with you about the last call.’
‘Of course, here’s a Zoom,’ she said.
As I wait for her to join, I think that despite her challenging work temperament, she always knows exactly what she wants, how she wants it and what needs to be done. She loves to work alone and can get tricky projects done in the most efficient ways possible.
While her demeanor can intimidate many, I respect her for her determination and ambition. I know she is not trying to rub people the wrong way; she is different. I think that experience has taught her to be persistent and push past challenges. Unfortunately, she frequently regards other team members as challenges to be pushed over.
