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She said she was
surprised that there wasn't a single competent person who could help her out.
Rajeev tried to calm her down but this only annoyed her further. She dashed to
the exit, flinging both the pair of trousers and the loyalty card to the floor,
vowing never to come back to the store. Rajeev knew the store had lost a loyal
and valuable customer, but at the same time did not want to take any decisions
without consulting Sushma first. He felt frustrated and helpless.
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Ever since Sushma had been promoted, she had been
working late, sometimes till midnight. However, most of the work that
she was doing was something that she should have delegated to her
juniors. She preferred to do the work herself as she did not have enough
trust in her juniors.
So in actual fact, only her title had changed - her attitude and focus
had not. She was still doing the same work that she had been doing
before her promotion! All this additional work, however, left her with
very little time to attend to her own responsibilities.
On another occasion, when Sushma heard a customer complaining about the
quality of fruit and vegetables at the store, she immediately went to
the woman to sort out the issue, forgetting that she had an appointment
with a senior official from Techtron Electronics who wanted to discuss
his company's plans of running a promotional event in association with
MSA.
It was a great opportunity for Sushma to get additional business. The
marketing manager of Techtron, Vishal Anand, waited about 45 minutes for
Sushma, but she was busy pacifying the woman who had come to complain.
Anand ultimately grew tired of waiting and left; he then went to
Stop&Shop, MSA's prime competitor.
In the evening, Aravind Sinha, Director, MSA, came to know that Techtron
had gone to their rivals. So he called up Anand to know why he had
changed his mind and tied up with MSA's rival.
Anand then told him, "Your store was our first choice, but it seems your
Manager was too busy to see me. I thought I should go elsewhere where
they would appreciate my time." Sinha was taken aback.
On learning what had happened, Sushma was worried that she had
disappointed Sinha. From being a star performer and everyone's favourite
employee, Sushma had suddenly become the one person no one wanted to
work with.
Her juniors thought she interfered too much, while her seniors thought
that she was not focused enough. Sushma was confused. She liked to think
of herself as indispensable, and thought she was working her way toward
becoming exactly that for her organization.
The way she saw it, she was being helpful to everyone, working harder
and longer than ever, and doing more than she was expected to do! What
then, was she doing wrong?
Questions for Discussion
1. What in your opinion was Sushma doing wrong? What do you suggest she
do now in order to rectify the situation?
2. Should the company have trained Sushma for her new role? What should
Sinha do now?
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