From Living in a Rut to Taking Action

Problem:
Four federal judges with very different management and leadership styles were looking for effective ways to foster increased morale in the workplace. As a result of participating in an agency wide 360 degree feedback process, they were both astounded and concerned by the many issues cited in the assessment. Nor did they know how to best address these issues. Judges, like attorneys, want lots of information to digest before they rule. My job was to help them decipher the limited feedback, and develop individual action plans that would address the issues raised. The concerns brought forth by employees included a lack of career guidance for senior attorneys, the ongoing conflicts between the team of judges that marred communications within the department, and the overall lack of support employees (from administrative employees to senior attorneys) felt in the office.

Solution:
The agency allotted four hours for this coaching intervention. After my first individual sessions, I realized that the best route to take was to have them meet as a group with me, as many of the issues identified both in the survey and during my first coaching sessions pertained to the fractious relationships these judges had with each other. They were amenable to meeting as a team as long as the focus was on ways to improve the office, not ascribing blame to one another. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into by having them meet as a group, but I knew that bringing some humor and wisdom to the situation might help defuse or at least "air out" some of these old hostilities. When people don't talk about what bothers them, the problem either goes away in time or else it takes on a life of its own.

The judges knew that on their own they would continue to "dance around" the issues they had verbalized in private with me, but since they worked as a team and were evaluated as a team, I thought that if I could reframe the employee feedback in ways that did not result in judges taking sides with each other, we would end up with a successful outcome.

My goal during the group session was to foster communication amongst the judges, learn how they, as a "team of judges" worked with one another, and insure that within two hours they had agreed upon an action plan that would effectively address the 360 feedback results.

The judges voted to re-establish a quality of work process that, in the past, met with employee success and support. They also agreed to meet individually with employees to further flush out the issues before they devised individual action plans.

By continually reminding and speaking publicly about what united them was their overall commitment to the success of this department, they were able to disagree with one another but come together behind some shared action plans that supported the office.
Each judge has met individually with employees. In our final session the judges noted an increased ease in their own communication with each other, and that the overall mood of the organization was one of openness and support. This group came a long way in a short period of time.