Your career has progressed even faster than you thought possible. After graduating from college with an accounting degree, you passed your CPA exam and worked three years for a major accounting firm. Then you joined General Electric in their finance department. Two employers and four jobs later, you have just been hired by a Fortune 100 mining company as their vice president for finance. What you didn’t expect in the new job was having to deal with Mark Hundley.
Mark is the vice president of company operations. He has been with the company for eight years. Your first impression of Mark was that he was a “know-it-all.” He was quick to put you down and acted as if he was your superior rather than an equal. Based on comments you’ve heard around the offices, it seems you are not alone. Other executives all seemed to agree that Mark is a brilliant engineer and operations manager but very difficult to work with. Specific comments you’ve heard include “an abrasive attitude”; “talks down to people”; “arrogant”; “thinks everyone is stupid”; and “poor listener.
In your short time in the new job, you’ve already had several run-ins with Mark. You’ve even talked to your boss, the company president, about him. The president’s response wasn’t surprising: “Mark isn’t easy to deal with. But no one knows this company’s operations like he does. If he ever leaves, I don’t know how we’d replace him. But, that said, he gives me a lot of grief. Sometimes he makes me feel like I work for him rather than the other way around.”
What could you do to improve your ability to work with Mark?