It is a typical day for you in a position you started several months ago managing a satellite ambulatory care clinic for an academic health system. You are at a meeting led by the director of ambulatory care with the 4 managers of the other clinics. The clinics are distributed roughly in a circle around the center of the city, where the main hospital is located. You are the newest manager of this group. The director of ambulatory care, Tracy, previously held a clinic manager position like you, but has been in the director role now for almost a decade.

The main agenda item in the meeting is the way the clinic managers are to handle relationships with nursing and other personnel during the upcoming drive to unionize the health system's nursing staff. The union effort will begin next week, and this will be the last monthly meeting before this important time. It's expected to be another contentious effort, as management tries to maintain a non-union status, and the union fights to achieve the support needed for recognition. Once the nursing staff is organized, the union feels it's only a matter of time before the rest of the hospital unionizes, too. Like the eager young manager you are, you've actually been studying up on hospitals and unions, including checking out some recent cases decided by the National Labor Relations Board.

Tracy seems to be in a terrible mood. In addition to the pressures from the union effort, the meeting started late because one of the other clinic managers was delayed in traffic. Everyone feels pressured to get the meeting over and get back to work. Tracy summarizes several expectations concerning the union effort from senior management for all the clinic managers. Suddenly, you hear Tracy say something surprising. If you remember what you read, the instructions and advice Tracy just shared would be considered to be an illegal management activity. You are nearly certain Tracy may have inadvertently reversed a few words and described an illegal action as legal, even encouraged by senior management. But, when you ask to have it repeated, Tracy growls at you, "Pay closer attention" and repeats the advice. You ask, "Are you sure that's right?", and Tracy glowers at you. "Are you questioning my competence?" The abrupt question silences you in front of your peers.

Tracy finishes summarizing the rest of the advice on the union effort. Then, looking directly at you, concludes: "That's it until next month...unless there are any more questions?" please write couple of pages page essay explaining what choice you would make and the reasons why you would make that choice. Your essay should address any important issues that you think the case raises about Well-Cultivated Self-Awareness (both Personal Conviction and Emotional Intelligence)