Lesson 9- Blog Reflection on Face Work

From your own experience, describe a situation in which you used face work.

One recent example of this was related to a confrontation that I had with an Officer in my organization.  The Officer was three levels higher than me in the organization and I had limited interactions with her in the past, mostly pleasantries in meeting environments.

An associate in her department had scheduled a meeting with me related to concerns that she had with her manager.  During the course of the discussion, the associate indicated that some of her concerns related to the Officer’s neglect to address this manager despite multiple complaints of his “explosive behavior” towards his direct reports.  As part of my investigation, I needed to meet with the Officer to determine if she was aware of this manager’s behavior and how, if at all, she had addressed it in the past.

Meeting with this Officer was a little tricky for me.  I was required to ask questions put the Officer “on the spot”, and I was able to determine that the Officer was aware of these issues but had not yet appropriately addressed them.  She asked me, “what do you think I should do?”.  It was at this point that she was essentially looking at me as a consultant, and although I knew how to coach a manager through this type of situation, I also felt compelled to preserve the social- status  of our relationship.

It was somewhat awkward, but at the end of the meeting, she thanked me and asked me to follow up with her after my investigation so that we could work together to address the associate’s concerns and improve the work environment.