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Writing Mastery Exam Sample Essay

Respondent: KATHY JORDAN

Jane Epstein is a new manager at TechniCo, and she believes she has “inherited a good team.” However, one member of her team, Andy Zimmerman, has Jane worried. Andy is a terrific performer – he’s intelligent and efficient – but he has a nasty side to him that is hurting the team’s morale. Kathy Jordan, a psychologist and global executive coach at KRW International, has experience in dealing with workplace disputes. Kathy Jordan’s suggestions for Jane are the most sensible because she first appropriately asserts that Jane must be clear with Andy about her expectation that he manage relationships rather than just put up good numbers, then she rightly stresses Jane’s need to coach her team members on developing assertiveness and conflict management strategies so they can better handle their own interactions with difficult colleagues, and finally, she correctly recognizes that Jane has to stop sending emails to Rick Lazarus about Andy and start soliciting help within TechniCo—both to better solve the problem and to build a strong reputation at her new company.

Kathy Jordan appropriately asserts that Jane must be clear with Andy about her expectation that he manage relationships rather than just produce good sales numbers. Thus, Jane could speak to Andy directly about her specific expectations for his behavior with colleagues. For example, Jane could talk to Andy about (1) better ways to handle Maureen, the AA who “flubbed a meeting time” or (2) more effective ways to handle Jack, whose ideas Andy put down during the brainstorming meeting or (3) ways to avoid “reaming” out colleagues like Danielle, who “mishandled” a customer’s calls. By following Jordan’s advice, Jane would let Andy know that she insists “on positive behavior as a condition of employment” and that for Jane, relationships with colleagues are as important as attaining sales numbers. Then, Andy would recognize that to keep his job, he needs to learn new skills to deal more positively with his colleagues.

Kathy Jordan rightly stresses Jane’s need to coach her team members on developing assertiveness and conflict management strategies so that Andy’s bad behavior is held in check and Jane doesn’t feel like a kindergarten teacher. According to Jordan, the team would fare better if its members fight back when Andy tries to “derail” meetings or starts reaming people out. Jane’s team is intimidated by Andy as noted in the “Andy stories” that Jane tells Rick Lazarus, such as Andy terrorizing Jack in the brainstorming meeting, causing everyone to cower and shut down. If, as Jordan suggests, Jane trains her team to handle Andy’s difficult behavior, to assert themselves, and to learn to “conduct effective meetings,” Jane’s employees may feel more comfortable, creative, and productive. Then the team could brainstorm together without fear of outbursts from Andy, and Jane wouldn’t always feel as if she were running a kindergarten classroom with difficult personalities running amok.

Kathy Jordan correctly recognizes that Jane has to stop sending emails to Rick Lazarus about Andy and start soliciting help at TechniCo—both to better solve the problem and to build a strong reputation at her new company. For example, while Jane and Rick exchanged 18 emails in the course of one month, the exchange did little to help Jane solve her work problem at TechniCo and could have “reinforced [Jane’s] managerial blind spot.” According to Jordan, Jane should talk to other managers at TechniCo because first, they can give her a “crash course” in TechniCo culture, providing important information on how much leverage Jane might have with Andy; second, they could give Jane information on who within the company she should contact about Andy, and third, they could tell Jane what kind of programs TechniCo might have to handle difficult employees. If Jane seeks help from inside the company, she can find better answers about how to handle Andy, demonstrate that she can manage her team, and get on track to impress her TechniCo superiors—which Jordan notes is incredibly important because “honeymoons are stunningly short in today’s corporate environments.”

Kathy Jordan has the most sensible recommendations for Jane because she first appropriately asserts that Jane must be clear with Andy about her expectation that he manage relationships rather than just put up good numbers, then she rightly stresses Jane’s need to coach her team members on developing assertiveness and conflict management strategies, and finally, she correctly recognizes that Jane has to stop sending email to Rick Lazarus about Andy and start soliciting help within TechniCo. Jane is new to TechniCo, but shouldn’t be new to the challenges of managing a team. Jane’s future success at TechniCo could be based on how wisely she handles Andy’s mean streak. If she can tone down Andy’s bad behavior and power up the work ethic of her team, Jane can find her place at TechniCo a positive and powerful one.

2 - Revised 8/6/2014