When Your Colleague Is a Saboteur Case Study What are the major decisions faced in the two cases? What do you believe are the best courses of actions to ta

When Your Colleague Is a Saboteur Case Study What are the major decisions faced in the two cases? What do you believe are the best courses of actions to take in each?

Case Study: When Your Colleague Is a Saboteur

Question: How can Mark regain his footing after being sabotaged?

Case Study: Should he be fired for that Facebook post?

What course of action should Susannah take in response to Kenton’s facebook remarks? HBR Case Study
BY BRONWYN FRYER
COMMENTARY BY
MAGGIE CRADDOCK,
R. DIXON THAYER,
AND DEBORAH KOLB
When Your Colleague
Is a Saboteur
is it?” Mark Landstad wondered aloud. He scanned the
sea of ?les in his predecessor’s master
folder on the company network one
more time. “I know it must be here
somewhere!”
Walking to the window, Mark gritted his teeth and scratched his face,
which felt itchy and hot. He surveyed the crepuscular lights of London, as if the missing ?le might be
hiding among them. Monday’s presentation would be his ?rst in front
of CliffBank’s senior management
team. He’d only just moved from the
?rm’s research department into its
investment banking division, so making a good impression
was critical. He’d been working on the slide deck all week, but
he couldn’t ?nish it without more up-to-date information –
which he guessed was in the elusive ?le on Millhouse, the
famous retail clothing chain CliffBank was trying to land as
a client.
He needed a lifeline.
“Nicole,” he whispered to himself. His new colleague and
teammate on the Millhouse project might well know where
to ?nd the ?le, which supposedly included information about
Daniel Vasconcellos
“WHERE ON EARTH
the retailer’s current acquisitions
strategy. Unfortunately, she was
30,000 feet over China and wouldn’t
be reachable until Monday morning
at the earliest.
Mark smiled as he recalled being
immensely impressed with Nicole,
especially when they ?rst met. Gracious and bright-eyed, she’d been
quick to welcome Mark into the division and help him acclimate. In her
black St. John suit, with her smooth
bob of blonde hair and shoulders
thrown back, Nicole seemed astute,
focused, on her game – every bit the
competent executive. “Listen, any
questions, any time, feel free to pound screaming on my door,”
she’d offered. “I’m extremely busy, as we all are, but I want us
to be a good team.”
She’d taken him under her wing, introduced him to all the
senior managers in the division, and invited him to a long
lunch to bring him up to speed. Over drinks at a tapas bar,
she had ?lled him in on the messy story of his predecessor,
HBR’s cases, which are ?ctional, present common managerial
dilemmas and offer concrete solutions from experts.
hbr.org
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HBR Case Study When Your Colleague Is a Saboteur
surely have to do some more fudging
who’d gone haywire and been forcibly
this weekend.
removed from the building. “It’s a real
shame about Patrick,” she had told Mark.
“He was a true master of M&A, and he
She’s Got It Together
knew the retail sector cold, but over the
Mark leaned into Nicole’s of?ce and
past year he became moodier and more
smiled. “How’d the trip go?” he asked.
disorganized. Then the paranoid e-mails.
“Great, thanks. I’m just a little tired.
Quite frightening, really.”
Awfully long ?ight.”
“Where is he now, do you think?” Mark
You’d hardly know it, Mark thought.
had asked.
“And you?” she asked politely. “How
“Oh, no one seems to know,” she’d rewas your weekend?”
plied, “but I do hope he’s getting help.”
“Bit of a blur, actually. I spent forever
Depressed now at the prospect of
working up some new slides. I looked
spending the weekend hunting for a
high and low for that ?le you said Patmadman’s notes, Mark sank into his
rick kept on Millhouse – and ultimately
desk chair and loosened his tie. Down
couldn’t ?nd it. So I just cobbled somethe hallway, he could hear the Fridaything together.”
night cleaning staff’s Hoover whirring
“Oh, that’s harsh,” Nicole replied emnear Nicole’s of?ce. He stared at the
pathetically, pulling open a desk drawer.
mesmerizing screen saver on his monitor. Another frenzied ?le search would
yield nothing, he knew. The damned
thing had probably been deleted.
What about Ian Beasley? The head
of corporate strategy at Millhouse was,
after all, a family friend. Without him,
Mark wouldn’t even be at CliffBank. Ten
years earlier, on the strength of Ian’s recommendation, Mark, with a fresh MBA
She produced a box of Swiss chocolates
in hand, had been hired as a researcher
and offered him one, which he accepted.
in Millhouse’s ?nance department. The “I know that ?le is somewhere,” Nicole
relationship with Ian had always been
added. “Patrick never seemed to save
warm, and a successful stint at Millanything in its proper place. The ?le’s
house had helped launch Mark’s career
probably on the hard drive of a junked
as an equity researcher at CliffBank. Ian
laptop. Don’t you just love living with
had even encouraged Mark to shift over
the consequences of someone else’s
to CliffBank’s investment banking divinasty habits?” She took a sip of tea,
sion. “Make the right moves, and you’ll
winked at Mark, and peeked at her com?nd yourself retiring early,” Ian had adputer monitor.
vised him.
“Listen, Nicole, I know you must be
Mark nudged his mouse and broke
inundated, but would you mind looking
the screen saver’s spell. With great foover the slide deck as soon as you can?
cus, he began typing an e-mail but then
I sent it to you last night. I want to make
paused. Getting Ian to help him was
sure it looks all right from your standprobably not such a good idea after
point before we present it.”
all. He might not relish taking time on
“Right away. Will do,” she said, staring
a weekend to walk Mark through the
at the monitor. “Just give me a minute.”
details of Millhouse’s acquisiMark ducked out and
hbr.org
tion strategy.
returned to his of?ce to
Weigh in with your
Mark minimized the e-mail
rehearse his portion of the
solution to the
dilemma in this
window, clicked on his prepresentation. He’d decided
?ctional case at
sentation, and contemplated
to focus on Millhouse’s past
colleague.hbr.org.
the half-created slide. He’d
acquisition patterns and
merger activities, and its growing interest in smaller retailers. Whatever his
slides lacked in information about Millhouse’s current strategy he’d make up
for in keen ?rsthand observations about
the ?rm’s methodical, long-standing approach to due diligence.
By 11:30, Mark was on tenterhooks.
The meeting was scheduled for just
after lunch, and Nicole hadn’t yet responded. He walked over to her of?ce,
but the glass door was shut. She was on
the phone, her back to him. He decided
to ?ght his anxiety with a quick walk
to grab a sandwich. Surely she would
have reviewed the slides by the time he
returned.
When he did, neither Nicole nor her
assistant was around. He consoled him-
“Don’t you just love living with the
consequences of someone else’s
nasty habits?”
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self with the sight of the scrumptious
wheat bread protecting his ham and
cheese.
After nervously gobbling down lunch
at his desk, Mark returned to Nicole’s
of?ce, less than half an hour before the
meeting, to ?nd her leaning back in her
chair, pursing her lips as she looked at
her monitor. He forced a half smile to
hide his annoyance.
“Looks great,” Nicole said nonchalantly and clicked her mouse. “I think it
will really make a good impression. All’s
well. See you in a few.”
She Struts Her Stuff
As the senior managers streamed into
the conference room, Paul O’Rourke,
the head of the division, cast a kindly
eye at Mark. Feeling a clutch of selfdoubt, Mark grinned tightly.
“We’ve already done deals with six
different companies in the retail sector,”
Nicole began after the lights dimmed.
The slide listed several of Millhouse’s
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HBR Case Study When Your Colleague Is a Saboteur
smaller competitors in the clothing
industry. “Of the remaining three that
we’re pursuing, Millhouse is the largest.”
Nicole progressed slowly and deliberately through her portion of the slide
set, and Mark felt his impatience growing. This is old news, he thought. Why
milk it? He glanced around at the expectant faces.
“As you’ll recall, we speculated last
year about whether Millhouse was
likely to make any additional ambitious acquisitions,” she said. Then, her
eyes brighter than ever, Nicole clicked
to a slide Mark had never seen. It was
out giving him a heads-up? What kind of
teammate was she?
“Good sleuthing, Nicole,” he overheard
Paul say in the hallway.
Mark gave the ?oor the glare that he
wanted to direct at Nicole. He would
have confronted her right then and
there, but for Paul. He’d have to take
this up with her later. Privately.
She Blows Right Past You
Half an hour later, Paul strode into
Mark’s of?ce. “You know, Mark, I think
we need more insight about what’s going on politically at Millhouse. I wonder
“Most of the credit? I’m trying to grab
all of the credit!”
an org chart. “I recently discovered that
Millhouse is considering reorganization.”
Click. “This is what the new structure
might look like.”
Stunned, Marked looked around
again. Several of the managers were
leaning forward with curiosity.
Paul spoke ?rst. “I see that the organization is considerably ?atter than the
previous one. It looks like they might be
planning to outsource several of their
operations.”
Suddenly everyone was talking at
once, like a gaggle of opinionated parliamentarians. Nicole hushed the room
and began answering questions one by
one, eating up the remainder of the
hour. Mark knew he should interject,
but his mind was in a whirl. This was
exactly the kind of information that was
supposed to be in the ?le he had been
looking for. Why did Nicole have it, and
why hadn’t she shared it with him? At
2:00, Paul ended the meeting, declaring that they would reconvene later
that week.
Mark fumed silently as the executives
?led out of the room. Even if Nicole
hadn’t been hiding information from
him, why had she inserted such an important fact into the presentation with-
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if you could contact your friend Beasley
over there. Maybe have lunch, ?nd out
what he’s thinking. We want to look on
our game when we make the pitch.”
Mark didn’t respond right away. He
felt mildly uncomfortable about Paul’s
request. After all, he considered Ian
a friend as much as a business contact. Still, Paul was the boss. “Certainly,”
Mark said.
“Maybe ring his of?ce right now? The
sooner you can talk with him, the better.
Thanks, Mark.”
Paul turned to leave as Mark picked
up the phone to call Millhouse headquarters. Part of him hoped that Ian
would be out of the of?ce, but the assistant put him right through.
“Well hel-lo, Mark!” Ian sounded genuinely glad to hear from his old protégé.
“All settled in?”
“I have a marvelous of?ce with a view
of Parliament and your building just
beyond,” Mark said lightly. “And I’ve got
my ?rst big assignment. It’s to set up a
lunch with you. I’m on the retail team,
and we want to see if we can move forward on a deal with you guys. So, when
can you ?t me in?”
“Funny you should say that. Just last
week I received an e-mail from a col-
November 2008
|
league of yours – Nicole, um, Collins.
She was rather insistent about meeting with me. Perhaps she should come
along?”
Mark nearly regurgitated the ham
he’d eaten for lunch. “Oh, really? Well,
yes, I suppose I should try to coordinate
with her – ”
“I’ll just have my assistant check the
calendar and set that up, maybe for next
week. Nice to hear your voice.”
Mark hung up and marched down
the hallway to Nicole’s of?ce. He entered without knocking and shut the
door behind him.
“Nicole, I want you to know that Paul
asked me to meet privately with Ian
Beasley. He’s my friend. What are you
doing contacting him?”
Nicole looked up quickly from her
desk. Her cheeks reddened. “There’s
no way you’re going to meet with Ian
if I’m not there!” She stood up con?dently. “I’ve been working in this sector, and on Millhouse, for a long time.
If you think you’re going to take that
away from me, you’ve got another think
coming!”
Mark decided to be direct. “Ah, I see.
So it’s about grabbing most of the credit,
is it?”
“Most of the credit? Ha!” She laughed
as if mocking a schoolyard playmate.
“I’m trying to grab all of the credit!”
Mark was visibly stunned. “Relax,
Mark, you look stressed,” she said breezily
as she strode past. Tilting her head at him,
she opened the door and walked out.
Mark stepped into the hallway and
watched Nicole turn the corner. His
mind was reeling. He clenched his ?sts,
stuck them in his pockets, and stewed.
He would have punched Nicole’s of?ce
door, but for the glass.
Have You Had Enough?
Mark, temples throbbing, walked slowly
toward Paul’s of?ce. He felt as if he
were in a dream and had no idea what
he would say. He had to say something
though.
Paul was on the phone, but he waved
Mark in.
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10/6/08 12:51:35 PM
“Got a minute?” he heard himself asking uneasily after Paul had hung up. This
was de?nitely new territory for Mark.
“Sure,” Paul said, with a trace of impatience. “What is it?”
“I need some perspective on working
with Nicole.” He thought he heard his
own voice echoing.
“What’s the problem?” Paul asked.
“May I shut the door?”
“We have an open-door policy here,”
Paul answered a bit defensively, “but if
that would make you more comfortable,
go ahead.”
Mark took a deep breath as the glass
door clicked shut. “I got in touch with
Ian Beasley, who told me that Nicole has
already contacted him to suggest a meeting. In fact, it sounds like she has been
quite, um, aggressively trying to build
a relationship with him since Patrick’s
departure, before I was hired. It’s been
my understanding that I was brought
in here, in part, on the strength of my
connections.”
Mark went on to describe his surprise
at Nicole’s presentation, struggling between a desire to simply vent and embarrassment at having put himself in an
awkward position. He felt like a little
boy who had run to the headmaster to
rat on a bully. “I must say, I’m a little
concerned about her behavior. Maybe
she’s just having a bad day, but…”
“Would you like me to speak with her?”
Paul interrupted, clearly irritated by the
prospect of having to intercede.
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Mark replied, trying to sound reassuring. “I just
wanted to make sure you knew what was
happening. I can ?ght my own battles.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Paul said, relieved.
“I realize that Nicole is an ambitious
young woman, but you’ll learn to respect her results. I have.”
How can Mark regain his footing
after being sabotaged? Three
commentators offer expert advice
beginning on page 48.
Your market is changing.
Your competition is changing.
Your organization is changing.
And you?
What are you changing?
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Education programs to help you succeed in a rapidly changing world, including:
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Go to WHATAREYOUCHANGING.COM or call 212.854.3395.
Bronwyn Fryer (bfryer@harvard
business.org) is a senior editor at HBR.
1592 Fryer.indd 45
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HBR Case Commentary How Can Mark Regain His Footing After Being Sabotaged?
Maggie Craddock (mc@
workplacerelationships.
com) is the president of
Workplace Relationships,
an executive coaching ?rm
in New York, and is on the
faculty of Wharton’s Advance
Management Program at the
University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. Before building
her coaching business, she
won two Lipper Fund Awards
for her work as a portfolio
manager.
MARK MAY know a lot about ?nance and
retail, but he’s a novice when it comes to personal power.
Any organization operates as both a ?nancial enterprise and a social system. And the
system is not simply an organizational structure – interpersonal dynamics are the meat
on the bones of that skeleton. My ?rm’s research on such dynamics within organizations
reveals that many people take and relinquish
power according to patterns they internalized
from their family systems. Often what makes
or breaks a career isn’t the thinking you do
about workplace situations; it’s how you react
when you are too emotionally embroiled in
the situations to think at all.
Most people acquire their dominant power
styles from their experiences with authority
?gures in the family. To represent how these
styles play out in an organization, my ?rm
graphs an individual’s level of seniority within
the hierarchy against his or her tendency
to get needs met by inspiring trust, fear, or
some combination of the two. In comparing
team, to bring a fresh perspective. Like many
anxious pleasers, he is so fearful of making
a misstep that he fails to step up at all, allowing Nicole to have all the power. Mark
cannot even be assertive in speaking to Ian,
with whom he has a long-standing, positive
professional relationship. He simply accedes
to Ian’s suggestion to invite Nicole to their
meeting because his desire to please Ian gets
in the way of the business at hand. He is like
many anxious pleasers who spend lots of
time wining and dining clients but still fail to
close deals because they are more concerned
with being liked than with achieving the commercial goal.
Nicole operates from an entirely different
personality quadrant. She exhibits behavior
typical of indirect commanders – using chaos
as a control tactic. Conscious of her modus
operandi or not, she tests the waters with
Mark by not getting back to him before the
meeting. Indirect commanders often try to
rattle people in ways like that in order to disempower them.
the power people are formally assigned with
how they use it, we have identi?ed four main
personality types: the anxious pleaser, the
indirect commander, the direct commander,
and the giver.
Mark is a classic anxious pleaser. He thinks
he’s being sabotaged, but in fact he’s sabotaging himself. In the opening scene, Mark is
his own worst enemy. He’s wasting energy
tearing his of?ce apart to locate a predecessor’s electronic document when he should
be focused on making his own valuable contribution to an important upcoming meeting.
If a missing ?le knocks him so far off his
horse, how will he stay astride in a signi?cant
crisis?
During the big presentation, Mark fails to
assert his capacity, as the new person on the
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That approach certainly works on Mark,
and he loses professional credibility in the
process. When he heatedly rushes to Paul’s
of?ce against his better judgment, he’s like
the little brother who runs to daddy to resolve
a sibling dispute. Meanwhile, Paul, a direct
commander, focuses so blindly on results
that he ignores the human dynamics within
his team.
To regain his footing, Mark needs to examine his internalized tendencies. He must
?gure out why he gets so rattled, in particular by Nicole. Frequently, the most important conversations we have in business are
those we have with ourselves. …
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