All language subtitles for 28 - Case Study Lateral Leadership Fail English

Before we dive deeper into this topic, let me take a minute to tell you a story.

Several years ago, the company I worked for was in the process of implementing a new call center management

platform to support the growing pool of customers.

Since Bob, the call center manager, fully understood the need of the customers, the senior management

team decided to put him in charge of the project.

Bob, full of excitement, started scheduling meetings and getting the ball rolling, immediately making

decisions on every aspect of the project.

However, he quickly ran into serious problems, causing the project to come to a screeching halt.

And that's putting it mildly.

Tempers are flaring.

People were walking off the project.

The company was losing money each day.

It was just chaotic.

Let's look at how this happened.

On this implementation, Bob had to work with all the groups that ultimately touched his customers directly

and indirectly, he had to gather data, solicit feedback, work with and gain the involvement of many.

To make the project a success.

He had to work with the IT department, customer service, the operations team, the service and repair

team and the customer contract department to make certain that all service level agreements were upheld.

So what happened?

After working with the call center software vendor and putting together a detailed project task list,

he started barking orders to each of the department heads and demanding tasks be done within the allotted

time.

You see, Bob really needed it to install and test the platform alongside the vendor.

He needed the collaboration of the customer service department to better understand the escalation process

that needed to occur in the system for it to be timely.

He needed to involve the operations and service departments to ensure that their processes were not

resulting in customer issues and therefore causing an increase in call center call volume.

Lastly, he also needs to have the service level agreements department in his corner to help monitor

any potential contractual issues that could have resulted from the new system.

That's a lot of moving parts that required lots of focus and collaboration.

The problem was that Bob was an amazing conventional leader, but he had no idea or understanding of

how important it was for him to take on a lateral leadership role instead.

Yep, you guessed it.

He forgot he wasn't their boss.

Unknowingly, Bob failed to create a shared understanding of the project scope, future vision and goals

of the organization.

He failed to involve the project team members and solicit their input and collaboration from the onset

of the project.

He also failed to generate trust by valuing everyone for the expertise they each brought to the project.