What is Privilege?
Several years ago I held the position of interim director. The department vice president had been selected to oversee a large integration, which gave my director the opportunity to become the interim vice president.
The first few months were fantastic. Nervous and excited, I looked forward to gaining an in depth view of advanced leadership. The interim vice president encouraged me to develop new ideas. However, I was never invited to key business meetings. Worse than trying and failing, it became clear that I wasn’t going to get an opportunity an opportunity to present my ideas to the senior leadership team.
Confused, hurt and frustrated, my first reaction was to relinquish the role. Not being someone to quit, …show more content…
The director was not promoted to vice president, but took a lateral transfer to an area department where he could develop from collaboration skills. At the same time, department “X” was absorbed by another group because the company determined that both teams were doing similar tasks and combining the two would deliver better results. The director of department “X” was named as the director of my department. In spite of poor employee satisfaction ratings for two consecutive years, senior leadership was giving her an opportunity to develop as a people manager.
While I received an “exceeds” performance rating for the role, I was challenged on what the interim vice president described as “appearing at times to lack confidence”. How could I give an accurate account without sounding as if the interim vice president were to blame? Schwable states, “To keep social life working smoothly, and to avoid trouble for ourselves, we must know how to give proper accounts.” (pg. 176).
As a result, I learned that the intention was never to create a new director, but to strategically move the then current directors to positions that better aligned with their strengths and minimized their
Several years ago I held the position of interim director. The department vice president had been selected to oversee a large integration, which gave my director the opportunity to become the interim vice president.
The first few months were fantastic. Nervous and excited, I looked forward to gaining an in depth view of advanced leadership. The interim vice president encouraged me to develop new ideas. However, I was never invited to key business meetings. Worse than trying and failing, it became clear that I wasn’t going to get an opportunity an opportunity to present my ideas to the senior leadership team.
Confused, hurt and frustrated, my first reaction was to relinquish the role. Not being someone to quit, …show more content…
The director was not promoted to vice president, but took a lateral transfer to an area department where he could develop from collaboration skills. At the same time, department “X” was absorbed by another group because the company determined that both teams were doing similar tasks and combining the two would deliver better results. The director of department “X” was named as the director of my department. In spite of poor employee satisfaction ratings for two consecutive years, senior leadership was giving her an opportunity to develop as a people manager.
While I received an “exceeds” performance rating for the role, I was challenged on what the interim vice president described as “appearing at times to lack confidence”. How could I give an accurate account without sounding as if the interim vice president were to blame? Schwable states, “To keep social life working smoothly, and to avoid trouble for ourselves, we must know how to give proper accounts.” (pg. 176).
As a result, I learned that the intention was never to create a new director, but to strategically move the then current directors to positions that better aligned with their strengths and minimized their