UVA-OB-0920

Rev. May 17, 2019

A New Team Face

Barry Giles had thought quite a bit about the dynamics he observed within his highly regarded marketing
group team during a recent meeting. He was feeling quite satisfied with his team’s performance under
pressure as they banded together to compile the marketing deck in response to his business head’s urgent
request. There had been a lot of energy and commitment among team members, and the work got done
quickly. Still, Giles was concerned about Derrek Fryar, a recent recruit to the team. Fryar had worked hard to
contribute his thoughts to the discussion, but his ideas didn’t seem to have much traction with the group. The
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ideas were solid enough—in fact, the group eventually had warmed up to several of them. But it seemed as if
Fryar marched uphill in quicksand as he worked to be heard. After the meeting, Giles was left with some
nagging questions: What happened to Fryar in the meeting? Why wasn’t he more integrated into the team?
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How was he feeling about the meeting? Was there any way to make the collaborative process more effective
the next time around?

The A Team

Barry Giles had taken leadership of his team only eight months earlier. He had joined the firm six years
ago as a newly minted MBA from Columbia and was in the midst of a very promising career. His new
assignment was evidence that he was moving forward in the firm. The members of his team—nicknamed the
A team—had been working together for a few months before Giles took over. The team was comprised of
Giles, Michael Krebs, Phillip Best, Carl McQueen, and Martha Staves. This group had really become very
efficient and effective in completing its assignments—Giles felt fortunate to have this group under his
command.

Michael Krebs was slightly older than Giles and also had an MBA—from Tulane. Everyone in the
organization knew Krebs. Some people had trouble realizing he was being disingenuous at times because he
seemed to express interest in getting to know almost everyone. He was good at building support between
team members on ideas, especially if the idea was his. Some of Krebs’s interactions could be short and
snappish, even described as impatient. It could be comfortably said that Krebs gave the impression of being
overly ambitious.

Although very likable, Phillip Best was the quiet one on the team. Because Best believed that each of
them was dependent upon the other to achieve professional effectiveness, he was much more likely to try and
build a consensus on issues. Not much of a fan for hierarchy, Best understood that good ideas could come
from anyone in the organization. When Best learned that the recent team addition was African American, he
became nervous about making a mistake in front of the new guy. He knew he could be inclusive but was
afraid he might say something wrong.

This case was written by Martin N. Davidson, Associate Professor of Business Administration, Gerry Yemen, Senior Case Writer, and Erin Magnuson,
Director, Leadership Development, Merrill Lynch. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling
of an administrative situation. Copyright  2007 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To
order copies, send an email to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or
transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Our goal is
to publish materials of the highest quality, so please submit any errata to editorial@dardenbusinesspublishing.com.
 Page 2 UVA-OB-0920

The oldest team member was Carl McQueen. After all these years, he was still bugged if the boss called a
meeting and didn’t say why. Perhaps the most fitting description of McQueen was that of a good employee
who did his best to maintain an excellent job performance. He shared little about his personal life and hated
required activities that were clearly meant to foster cooperation.

Many were shocked to learn that Martha Staves was a Simmons graduate. She tried not to be too “sugar
sweet” because she was a woman. Yet she was one of those people born cheerful but sometimes was too
chipper. The price of a stock could be tanking, and Staves would find something positive to say. A reliable
colleague, Staves could be accused of being too opportunistic about building relationships. She sat across the
table from Krebs at every meeting and was unaware of how flirtatious her interaction with him appeared.

Adding Talent
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At first glance, Barry Giles had been tremendously excited to have a new hire, Derrek Fryar, in the group.
Fryar was 27 years old and had recently graduated with an MBA from Wharton. Prior to grad school, he had
gotten some marketing experience with a small financial services firm. But he left that firm to go to business
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school because he felt he needed to prepare himself for the next level. He graduated with honors and was
very intrigued by the description of the position in Giles’s group.

Fryar was African American, and Giles felt his diverse perspective could really be helpful to the all-white
marketing team. In his interview, Fryar had talked about overcoming significant personal and professional
obstacles to earn his MBA, so Giles felt that this was a guy who had the experience to effectively manage
being a racial minority member on the team.

More than anything, though, Giles was excited that Fryar seemed so enthusiastic about the position in
marketing. “While I was looking for the right fit in my job search, I was very intrigued by the position
description I’d read in the local paper,” Fryar said. “Then when I met Barry during the interview, I felt like we
really connected, and I was happy to receive an offer the very next day.”

But as time passed and Fryar worked with the rest of the marketing team, Giles noticed a slower-than-
expected integration to the team on Fryar’s part and started making an effort to foster a better relationship.
He specifically asked for Fryar’s opinion in meetings, invited him to join everyone for drinks after work, and
even stopped by his cubicle to chat briefly about football. Giles really felt that he was doing all he could to
foster and ensure collaboration. Yet, at a recent emergency meeting, he began to doubt how successful he had
been in cultivating the relationship.

The Power Players

Part way through a busy day, Giles received an urgent call from his business head and was asked to put
together a marketing deck for one of the firm’s new products within 24 hours. He called an emergency team
meeting and asked for the entire group to attend to create a plan of attack. After describing the challenge,
everyone jumped in with ideas, and the brainstorming started:

“We really need to hit this thing off quickly,” Giles started. “And I think making the logo bigger would
help.”

“If it’s brighter, I think that would help too,” Best offered.
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“Making it bigger doesn’t really force people to look at it and love it, Barry,” Staves chimed in. “Maybe
nudging it over would make it visually more pleasing.”

“I agree with Martha, and even though blue is not in the creative brief,” Fryar said and suggested, “It is in
the corporate palette, how about changing the hue?”

“So what if we add some light and move it over to the center?” Krebs added.

“I like that,” Staves agreed

“Blue is my wife’s favorite color, and focus groups and classically trained creatives say yes to blue,”
McQueen said. “Let’s change it to blue for attention.”

“Excellent idea, Carl,” Krebs said.

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“Any thoughts, Derrek?” McQueen asked.

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“No, I guess we’re okay,” Fryar replied.

“Great, then let’s keep pushing,” urged Giles.

As the meeting continued, everyone had contributed 110%—their effort did not go unnoticed. Giles
could tell that Fryar shared his impression, however, the rest of the team appeared to ignore his suggestions
when he offered them. No one reacted to Fryar negatively; indeed, the overall climate in the meeting was
generally positive, but they just didn’t seem to react to Fryar’s input at all. At various points, it was almost
seemed as if he wasn’t there. Even though Giles had been too taxed to address his observation at the time, he
made a note to himself about what he was observing. Fryar left the meeting perturbed about the way the
meeting had gone and felt rather defeated. When he got home, he told his husband:

The meeting was tough. I can’t seem to get people’s attention. I know my ideas are good—no, they
are great! But people aren’t really listening to me. This is so frustrating. You know, I hate being
disrespected, I really do. But you know what I hate more? I have ideas that can really help us get to
where we need to be, and I just can’t get them across to folks. I don’t know how much longer I can
keep at this.