I Just Refused an Assignment I Really Wanted

Pete was agitated, nearly shaking as he came into my office, but it wasn’t from a conversation he’d just had; it was from a decision he’d made the day before.

His boss’ boss had pulled him aside to invite him to take over a suite of products—products that Pete was deeply committed to and had played a key role in developing. 

“I told him ‘no,’” Pete said. “It’s not that I don’t—or wouldn’t—want to do it. It’s just that if I take over that product suite, I’ll be reporting directly to Steve, who has spent his entire time in that division without ever getting to know his direct reports, their views on their products, how they see those products in the big picture of the business…and redistributing budgets and visibility with no conversations with his group. I just can’t do it.”

Pete had been hired two years earlier. He was among a group of very bright, early-career professionals who had been identified as having broad capacity to develop, create, collaborate, and learn to bring our products more relevance. A restructuring had moved these new hires into several different divisions, where they had been evaluated and re-categorized based on their corporate work history rather than their personal talent and capacity—or even their personal resumes.

I began to respond by sharing my observation that Steve had been contributing to organization-wide efforts. His mind for taking many products and product families, organizing them into a coherent plan and budgeting strategy had been timely and critical for our success.

“I know this is true,” Pete replied. “However, he has a whole group of direct reports that he either cannot or will not lead as people. He doesn’t seem to care about them in any way, other than ensuring that timelines are met.”

Then came the zinger. “I came here because I bought into a vision. A vision for how we work together to build each other and build products and processes that can really help people. I don’t think it matters how well organized we are if we don’t care about each other.”

As Pete left my office, I wondered how much we were losing as an organization because Pete was spending his energy avoiding working with Steve rather than feeling empowered to bring his expertise to bear on a significant project. 

I also wondered how often organizations lose productivity despite--or because of--efforts to devise processes to make work simpler.

Most of all, I wanted to continue my own journey toward becoming a leader who could be counted on to consistently build capacity, encourage growth, and facilitate innovation and change.

There is a value to being curious, interested, and caring about others and their success. It leads to good feelings, but it also leads to spontaneous ideas, interactions, and relationships that capture opportunities unavailable to teams of people who just do their jobs. If you're in a group that needs creative solutions to problems, cultivate these attributes in group members.