What if a leader doesn't take ownership?

[Sander]

So there's this situation where person A is the overall leader, person B is tasked with keeping the planning for some resources.
So now when person A is not around, and I get contacted if the resource is still available. I checks with B, and it's available.

So when the time is there, the resource appears not to be available, because A didn't communicate with B. Now A gets mad / accuses me for not checking with B.


Telling A that he's wrong is not about taking ownership of the problem, and also doesn't help the relationship between A and myself.

What's the best way of dealing with this?

Thanks!

[mynewunit]

People are most likely to follow their plan. So ask A for his plan of how it is supposed to work. Ask if there is a way to formalize it. Then once you are a third into formalizing the plan, bring up the short falls of the plan. Offer a solution to each short fall. Where possible you fill in the gaps.

Generally I suggest demonstrating extreme ownership is the best way to spread it. So show them what it looks like, and maybe they will catch it.

[a person]

hehe, ok I got a similar problem:

person A is supposed to be in charge of inventory, person A is incompetent so inventory keeps going missing. person B asks me to find inventory, I can't find it, I go ask for help and they can't find it either, except now person A says I should not say anything to their superiors about the missing inventory. And person b doesn't want to either. what now? also this is a recurring issue. it happens almost every week. random inventory just keeps going missing...and no one wants to look into it.

[mynewunit]

I have seen 2 versions of this. The first one was the guy in charge of inventory budget was trying to keep expenses down so he indirectly kept the shelves lean and had implications for people down stream and upstream regarding spending his budget.

The other was sketchy terms of what was happening. No one wanted to get any attention so they just gave a general "fugetaboutit" and move along.

The answer to both situations is to read the landscape and play the game. Read the landscape means learn who is the problem and who doesn't know about the problem. Learn how each person copes with what is going on.

Play the game means work with in the system. Find how problems are communicated inside the company. Find the rules for going over your boss's head, How to ask questions, when the inventory is audited. Then you have to choose to play by the rules our go outside the system.

Either way, fun. Good luck with that.