A female speaker I’d never heard before was given the proper speaker introduction and as she walked on stage to applause, even with wearing heavy makeup it looked like she had gone three rounds with Mike Tyson.
Audience eyes darting toward each other obviously recognizing the elephant in the room: her battered face. We all wondered what had happened. Honestly, everyone wondered if she was a battered wife. Her unbelievable explanation about playing with the family door and bumping her head on a door pretty much confirmed our suspicions. She apparently felt that was enough to take the elephant out of the room and went on to her topic: being authentic. Cut. Roll credits. This movie is over.
So often executives in meetings dance around the one topic no one wants to discuss but everyone knows they need to discuss as their first priority. Nothing can really get done until you address the elephant in the room.
When I say address it I don’t mean make matters worse by trying to lie your way through it, or wash over it and certainly don’t ignore it because everyone is waiting for it to come up on the agenda. How should you address the elephant in the room?
1. Talk about it right away.
If the CEO has just been raked over the coals by a news story or in the local paper make it the first agenda item for the managers meeting. Everyone is thinking about it, they’ve been talking about it prior to the meeting and they will be talking about it after the meeting. Clear the air so you can then move on to the business at hand.
2. Use the elephant to your advantage
Whether you just had a sexual harassment suit filed against an executive, filed for bankruptcy protection, or had a new competitor come to town, use that event to look how to benefit from it. How can someone benefit from a sexual harassment suit you might be asking? It’s a teachable moment. Talk about how important good documentation is. How important professional behavior is, how important it is to be prepared for when any manager is called into court for anything from a harassment suit to a claim of unlawful discharge of an employee. Teachable moments are the best way to address the negative elephant in the room.
3. When the elephant is within the team
Ever see two managers glare at each other across a meeting table just wishing they could tear into one another? Sure you have, and so did everyone else in the room. When the elephant is the powder keg waiting to explode when two managers go head to head on a topic, the progressive part of the meeting is over. Everyone around the table knows these two don’t get along. Take it off line before the next meeting and begin working toward resolution. Whoever these combatants report to, needs to set them aside and clear the air in a private meeting; otherwise, the rest of the group will be waiting for the “kaboom in the board room” round 4 and no one is paying attention to what is really being talked about in the meeting.
4. Know when to feed the elephant
Your company is going to be profiled in a magazine for exemplary leadership and strength in an otherwise downturn economy. Everyone feels great about this, but often times the humble CEO will down play the opportunity and tell everyone to focus on the work at hand. This is a mistake. The elephant in the room in this case is a wonderful one to have, so feed it. Recognize employees, applaud leadership, make this something to build morale and company pride in a job well done. Do not down play this because people want to enjoy the recognition.
The next time you have an elephant in your managers meeting, bring it out and talk about it until everyone is ready to move on, then you too can move on to dealing with driving your company to better growth.
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