The Senior Team meeting starts like a tag team wrestling match.
Bright lights. Inflated egos. Everyone in their corner waiting to leap off the ropes.
In one corner, the Boss. Muscles flexed. Jaw set. He sees threats everywhere. The Awkward One wants his title belt. The Boss suspects the chief executive doesn’t have his back. Partner agencies are with rival promotors.
In another corner, the Cynic. Calm. Technical. Carrying a thick bundle of performance reports like a steel chair he is legally allowed to use.
Across the ring, the Idealist full of energy. Believes in fair play. Still thinks everyone signed up for the same values.
Next to her, the Weak Link. Popular with the crowd. Signature move is the 45-minute meeting with no outcome.
Hovering near the ropes, the Awkward One . Experienced. Sharp elbows. Delights in going against the majority view. Always ready with a counter move.
Token makes up the numbers. Underestimated. Technically excellent. Knows all the moves always works in partnership. Often tagged in late. Often ignored but others frequently repeat Tokens moves.
Standing in the middle of the ring is the Head of HR. Striped shirt. Whistle. The referee. Calm. Alert. Watching for fouls.
First round. Performance reports.The Cynic tags himself in. He slams the absence figures onto the mat.“Up again.”The Boss charges. “Excuses.”The Awkward oOne bounces off the ropes. “It’s workload. It’s poor leadership.”The ring gets crowded.HR steps between them.“Let’s break.”
HR reframes the contest. Absence is not a weakness to punish. It is a signal to be read. Patterns matter. Stress in one service. Long term cases in another.
She counts to five metaphorically. No one is pinned. Yet.
Second round. The employee survey. Engagement down. Trust in senior management low. That lands like a body slam.The Boss goes defensive. The Idealist looks winded. The Weak Link suggests a workshop. Possibly several.
HR raises a hand.“Trust is built by behaviour. Or broken by it.”She lists the basics. Visible leadership. Keeping promises. Not cancelling one-to-ones. No late-night email barrages that feel like surprise attacks.No one can argue with the rule book.
The Token tentatively steps forward. Listening sessions. Joint work with partners. Rebuild bridges.The Awkward One scoffs at the partner agency’s track record. The Boss mutters he never trusted them anyway.HR blows the whistle.“Cheap shots don’t win championships.” She brings Token into the centre of the ring. The dynamics changes. A new tag team forms.
Third round. Technology. The new system was meant to be the finishing move. Instead, half the team refuse to climb the ropes. Senior managers avoid logging in. Passwords forgotten. Assistants printing emails like souvenirs.The Weak Link admits he finds it confusing. The Cynic says the data shows low adoption. The Boss says people need to get on with it. HR crouches slightly. Eye contact all round.“If leaders don’t use it, no one will.”Simple. She proposes short training bouts. Peer champions. No public humiliation for not knowing how to upload a document or deliver a pile driver. It is about confidence.
Throughout the match HR spots the fouls. Interruptions. Eye rolling. Side conversations. She calls them out lightly. She keeps the Awkward One from turning every exchange into a finishing move. She stops the Boss from using positional power as a weapon. She prevents the Cynic‘s facts from becoming blunt instruments.When the Weak Link tries to avoid engaging she pulls them to one side and says,”let’s get down to it”. The idealist overpromises. HR checks capacity. “Who is actually doing this?” No grandstanding. Just balance.
At one point the Boss squares up verbally to the Awkward One . Accusations are hurled. Motives questioned.HR steps in quickly.“Disagree with the idea. Not the person.”It lands.She is not there to take sides. She is there to protect the integrity of the match. Fair contest. Clear rules. Focus on outcomes.
By the final round there is sweat on brows but no one is flat on the canvas. Three actions on absence. Owned and timed. A visible commitment from each senior manager to use the new technology. No exceptions.A reset meeting with the partner agency led by Token with full backing.And a simple agreement. Behave in ways that build trust. Not chip away at it.
No one leaves with a championship belt. But no one suffers knocked down either.
In senior teams strong personalities will always clash. There will be theatrics. There will be attempts to dominate. Without a good referee it descends into chaos. With one, it becomes competitive but constructive.The crowd outside the ring. The employees. The partners. They do not care who preens in the spotlight.They care about results.HR makes sure the match delivers them.
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