Before joining the Ignite team, Andy had worked for the organisation for 10 years. He had been hugely successful. He had earned excess bonus ratings on a quarterly basis and had rapidly moved to the top of his salary scale.
Just before he joined the Ignite team, he experienced a change of manager and hadn’t built a relationship with his new leader. Before this, he had always performed consistently well and exceeded customer expectations.
You may be asking yourself why Andy was asked to join the Ignite team, and the answer is simply that Andy had his own personal issues that he was battling on a daily basis, and sometimes those issues impacted his ability to perform.
Andy performs better when supported by working relationships built on trust and understanding, so joining the Ignite team offered Andy a great opportunity to experience this while working with me.
Despite having worked for the same organisation for a long time, Andy and I had never worked together before. However, I quickly discovered that Andy didn’t learn by reading, so asking him to read Who Moved My Cheese was the worst thing I could have done.
What did work well for Andy was the Change Cycle, where he was asked to look at a simple diagram and plot his mood on it on a daily basis. This enabled me to have open and honest conversations built on mutual trust with him.
To really get to the root cause of some of Andy’s issues, I had to build a relationship with him very quickly so I could get him to trust me. I did this by making myself vulnerable and sharing my personal experiences with him.
Andy seeks praise, recognition and he is motivated to earn money so that he can support his family and give his daughters memories that they can treasure. This is where Andy and I built rapport as we had common ground with our goals for our family; he with his daughters and me with my sons.
At the end of the twelve-week programme, Andy asked to remain on my team and subsequently took on additional responsibilities. He also took on a work support role and influenced new staff members by sharing his skills, knowledge and expertise.
What Andy is doing 18 months later
Andy is currently planning his family holiday to Florida and taking some time to reflect on his skills so he can apply for new opportunities inside and outside the organisation. The knowledge and skills he gained while on the Ignite team allowed him to address some of his personal issues allowing him to create structured family time that gives him a better work/life balance