The company is part of a cultural sector in crisis. A technological change is underway; it is accompanied by a reorganization .
Sandra, 45, customer marketing manager, was given the project to set up a CRM. Competent, conscientious and loyal, she enjoys a certain technical authority.
She is, within the framework of this project, attached to two superiors, one functionally, the other hierarchically:
- Gilles, who leads the project. Endowed with a certain political sense, skilful, ambitious, he somewhat appropriates the work of Sandra who feels in fact little visible
- Alban, who with a function extended to this new responsibility without having the required technical skills, finds himself in a state of intense stress.
The two people are in rivalry.
Relationship dynamics
Gilles is worried. Not only does he not support Sandra in the management of the project but, angry, he humiliates her.
Alban is under pressure.
Not mastering the technical aspects, he asks Sandra a lot for explanations on the progress of the work. Sandra does not feel recognized. She ruminates because she would have liked to have full responsibility for the project. She feels weakened because she knows she cannot count on Alban to help her.
Attempts at solutions
In addition to the 3 protagonists, the managing director, the chief executive officer at the origin of the project as well as the HR department are involved.
The managing director entrusts a relational mission to Sandra; he asks her for greater empathy with Gilles.
The HR department knows that the CRM project is complex. She also knows that several previous departures have been attributable to Alban. She understands that the situation is tense and sets up a support system to grease the wheels.
Sandra tries to move on without soliciting Alban;
but she needs resources and it is Alban who can allocate them to her. She therefore launches into explanations that she does not always master very well. She tries to reassure him, to ensure that he himself gains in competence so that she can rely on him. She tries to convince without succeeding. Alban, the resource allocator, is not reassured by answers that he considers incomplete or not credible enough. At the same time, he is urged by the general manager to move forward more quickly.
Sandra constantly goes back to fighting and wears herself out by perpetuating a relational pattern that does not work.
Diagnostic
When the Cabinet is seized, Sandra is in an imminent situation of burnout.
She wants to be perceived as an expert but her results are disappointing: “I am not expert enough, she says”. It therefore redoubles its efforts and explanations, wants to be convincing but is exhausted, to the point of existential doubt.
She has a flagrant difficulty setting limits and controlling her emotions and those of her interlocutors. "I'm too emotional" and I blame myself for being so.
She calls into question her place in the company, the very meaning of her life.
Cabinet Prescription
At the request of the HRD, the Firm supports the coaching of Sandra and offers her:
- to inject something new into relationships,
- to stop giving explanations and to justify oneself (because to justify oneself is to confess guilt),
- to recognize that she does not know how to reveal her weakness,
- ask their line manager for the support and resources they need
What Sandra says today
" I feel much better ; the pressure is off."
She observed a change in her relationship with her supervisor: "When I show that I don't know, I gain credibility."
She has found the keys to communicating with her N+2: "I'm not being fooled anymore".
She has increased her visibility because Alban delegates more.
