How to handle an executive publicly reprimanding my team member

[WorkStuffandNonsense]

Yesterday evening, after working hours, one of the executive leadership team was blowing up my phone ranting about something one of my team had done. Yes, what they had done was annoying and poorly judged, but exec was really going off on one about it. I assured them I would address it directly with my team member on Monday.

Next thing I know, exec has sent an email to my team member, copying in 10 other people ranging from his peers to the CEO, laying into him about his poor decision. I immediately told him that he was out of order and that I had already said I would deal with it.

Now I have not only got to coach my team member through how he came to that decision and what he should do differently next time, but deal with his reaction to being publicly reprimanded. And manage that back up to the CEO and this exec. FFS.

Any tips? I hope this team member doesn't check his emails over the weekend, or he's going to be a mess. I've set up an hour-long face-to-face meeting with him first thing on Monday so it's handled straight away. I will say first that the way exec responded was inappropriate and that I have already spoken to him about it. Then listen to his feelings, reassure him that his decision wasn't the best but it's a learning opportunity, and go through the original issue, decision points and next steps. CEO and I meet on Monday afternoons, so I can then explain that issue and how it's being handled. I have a call with exec on Tuesday and will tell him again that publicly reprimanding this team member escalated the situation and I don't appreciate him bypassing me when he knew I was already aware and handling it. We normally get on very well and I'm disappointed that he's put me in this situation.

Just make sure team member realises the meeting on Monday morning isn’t going to be a beating. He might spend the weekend worrying …

I put a short, reassuring description in the meeting invitation so if he does check his emails he knows what to expect from me. He's a junior manager, not an experienced senior leader. He's likely to be embarrassed, anxious and upset rather than angry.

My first thought is you are handling it all exactly right, and you are blessed by good timing to see the CEO on Monday . The only two caveats would be is there any part where you need to take responsibility (oversight, catching it before it happened) and how you address the exec behaviour going forward- what do you want to see happen there?

My other thought was as it's a Friday night had the exec had a drink?!

Yes, part of the discussion with my team member on Monday will be about why he bypassed me and why I didn't know anything about the issue until exec started sending expletive-filled messages. Either he had a strange blip or he genuinely doesn't think I would need to know, which suggests lack of proper oversight on my part. That's something I need to fix.

Exec and I will calmly hash it out on Tuesday and I expect an apology to me and team member. I have noticed that this exec seems fragile at the moment. I know he's under a lot of stress and mentioned the fragility to our head of HR a couple of weeks ago. We have our regular 1:1 later in the week so I'll be bringing up this incident. I'm annoyed, but also genuinely concerned for his wellbeing.

The Exec has breached professional boundaries and has used offensive language. For me that amounts to harassment. Before you speak to the exec, I woukd advise forwarding the email to the CEO because it is more appropriate for them to deal with what is a conduct issue if the exec reports to them.

I think you need to separate the error of judgement/error by your team member from the actions of the exec.

I'd also contact your team member separately by email, apologise for any distress caused, assure them they aren't in trouble and assure them that the matter will be addressed.

He only used offensive language with me. We have a sweary kind of relationship. I wasn't offended.

Problem @WorkStuffandNonsense is when he spoke to you yesterday evening , it’s likely something you said didn’t reassure him, so he ended up doing what he did . “Will address on Monday” doesn’t mean much, in certain settings, apart from a weekend of uncertainty and further impact

its probably good learning for all of you; teams will always screw up no matter the controls in place, it’s always about comms, how quickly you jump on it, and how you handle it/prevent it

good luck

I went into more detail about exactly what I would do to deal with it on Monday but yes, he clearly stewed on it for 2 hours and decided he couldn't let it lie. I will discuss that with him and find out what he needed from me that he didn't get.

He didn’t want you to deal with it on Monday though , he needed reassurance/solution when he raised it there and then

I know it’s tricky though, I had very similar this week, LT is different bunch , … your role apart from setting controls in place (so teams don’t screw up as often ), is to also own the crap, and just fix fix fix asap..

it was sad that it was public, tbh not the end of the world, your team has to own , prevent it from happening again and move on .

Also the ones that bark the loudest are harmless.. another exec would possibly be quieter but in parallel deal with it in more damaging manner

It’s just a very good learning … good luck

Thankyou! Hopefully I'll resolve it to everyone's satisfaction, people will shrug it off as one of those things and we move on.

As I will explain to exec, it was well after hours so it wouldn't have been reasonable to get hold of my team member and make him do anything there and then. Nothing would have happened until everyone was back on Monday in any case. Clearly, it was reasonable to get hold of me and make me aware so I could deal with it first thing. More than that really wasn't necessary.