3. Discipline Darius Harris for coercing his subordinates to spend their own time on his volunteer work at the community after-school program. This action will send a signal that coercing employees is a clear violation of leadership authority. Not long ago, Jessica Armstrong, vice president of administration for Delaware Valley Chemical Inc., a New Jersey- based multinational company, made a point of stopping by department head Darius Harris’s office and lavishly praising him for his volunteer work with an after-school program for disadvantaged children in a nearby urban neighborhood. Now she was about to summon him to her office so she could take him to task for dedication to the same volunteer work.

It was Carolyn Clark, Harris’s secretary, who’d alerted her to the problem. “Darius told the community center he’d take responsibility for a fund-raising mass mailing. And then he asked me to edit the letter he’d drafted, make all the copies, stuff the envelopes, and get it into the mail—

most of this on my own time,” she reported, still obviously indignant.

“When I told him,’I’m sorry, but that’s not my job,’ he looked me straight in the eye and asked when I’d like to schedule my upcoming performance appraisal.”

Several of Harris’s subordinates also volunteered with the program. After chatting with them, Armstrong concluded most were volunteering out of a desire to stay on the boss’s good side. It was time to talk to Harris.