Guides and Rules of the Road 119the work, but in a more relaxed way, because she knows they
will not take advantage.
Alan works for another division of the same company. He
is good at building relationships. He is especially good with
capable but under-performing teams – they know what to do
and they can do it well when they want to, but they may be a
little burned out. Alan isn’t directive, he gives them lots of
support and usually manages to coax the teams away from the
fire. Jenny and Alan are outstanding in their different ways.
One ill-fated day the company swapped them round. Jenny
took Alan’s teams and Alan took Jenny’s, and the result was a
disaster. My work in that company was to model the skills of
each so Jenny could learn how Alan builds relationships and
Alan could learn how to be more task-oriented when neces-
sary. They would both gain as leaders, as they would be able
to switch between the two styles – task focus and relationship
focus – depending on the situation. No leader is so good that
they cannot learn more, and Jenny and Alan were intrigued
that the two sorts of teams were so different.
It was interesting to find out what Jenny saw as her skills
and how the teams saw her. She thought she was better at
building relationships, but the teams and other managers
she worked with thought she was better at getting the job
done. People respected her, but felt little warmth for her
personally. Alan knew he was easy-going and people liked
him, but if a job turned out badly, he didn’t know how to
toughen his approach without appearing harsh.