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You are caught in a difficult position made all the more difficult because
you are in two locations. If you decide to give this person another chance
(or two) to change her attitude and performance, can you convince your
manager to finance a trip to her site or have her come to yours? If they
won't, it says a lot about what they really want you to do.
I have found trying to repair another's performance through e-mails and
letters almost impossible. 1) Their attitude seems to compel them to
misread, over interpret, or dismiss important information. 2) You can't read
body language, hear their side of the story, and work through materials
showing her areas of strength (surely she does something right?) and
weakness, as well as demonstrating the standards being put in place by the
_new_ management, and 3) It is difficult to establish yourself as someone
who wants to see them succeed but still as a manager are providing a review
and a firm set of goals they must (and can) meet because they can't hear
things like concern in text. Neither can you be certain with e-mails that
she is/isn't willing to make the commitment necessary to improve.
Also, I have found some books of use just to get my approach down. One that
comes to mind is Suzette Elgin's _Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense_ and
there are several on the art of negotiation which can provide useful
information on dealing with defensive and antagonistic employees.
Unfortunately, those are at home and the only one I can remember the title
of is _How to Manage like Attila the Hun_.
Margaret
If you can't explain something to a six-year-old,
you really don't understand it yourself. A. Einstein
*********************************************
Margaret L. FalerSweany, Ph.D.
5718 Green Hollow Lane
The Colony, TX 75056
972-668-2860
falersweany -at- gocougs -dot- wsu -dot- edu
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
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