97208_F2.fm

Should Susan report the incident or pretend it never happened? After reading their advice at the end of the article, which expert do you agree with? Why?
www.hbr.org H B R CAS E ST U D Y Should Susan report

the incident or

pretend it never

happened? AND COMMENTARY Will She Fit In?

by Joan Magretta

? Five commentators offer

expert advice. Reprint 97208

This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Susan?s client made a pass at her. If she speaks out, will it destroy her

career? H B R CAS E ST U D Y Will She Fit In? COPYRIGHT © 1997 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. by Joan Magretta ?And then, well, he just lunged at me.?

?He did what?? Nancy asked incredulously.

?He lunged at me,? Susan replied. ?One

minute we?re sitting on the couch in his hotel

room, rehearsing his board presentation, and

the next minute he lurches toward me, knocking me over. I just couldn?t believe it.?

?Wow.? There was silence on the phone line.

?Yeah, wow,? Susan repeated. ?Now what do

I do??

Susan Carter was a partner at the Crowne

Group, a strategy consulting firm based in New

York. Her good friend Nancy Richfield was an

investment banker. In the 12 years since they

had graduated from business school, the two

women had kept in touch, often seeking advice

and support from each other at difficult moments in their careers. Susan and Nancy were

among a handful of women who had ?joined

the club??attaining the rank of partner at

elite, privately held firms in which 95% of the partners still were men. Crowne?s New York office had the kind of partner mix typical of most

consulting and investment-banking firms: there

were 98 partners in all, 4 of them women.

Promotion to partner four years earlier was

a goal Susan had worked hard to achieve. And

her successes on the Pellmore account had

given her a lot of visibility in the firm. In particular, her work with Brian Hanson, a group

senior vice president at Pellmore Industries,

was responsible for the dramatic turnaround

of a troubled business. The turnaround had

made Brian look like a hero, and he was so

pleased that he had begun to champion

Crowne to other executives at Pellmore. Almost overnight, Pellmore became Crowne?s

largest and most profitable client. Billings

mushroomed to $28 million?more than 20%

of the New York office?s revenue. And Crowne?s

senior partners were hoping to expand the

Pellmore budget even further during the an- HBR?s cases, which are fictional, present common managerial dilemmas

and offer concrete solutions from experts. harvard business review ? march?april 1997 page 1 This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Will She Fit In? ?? ?HBR C ASE S TUDY Joan Magretta is an editor-at-large at

HBR. She was formerly a partner at Bain

& Company, an international strategy

consulting firm based in Boston,

Massachusetts. nual account review the following month.

Susan could feel the tension in the back of

her neck.

?So then what happened, after he lunged at

you?? Nancy asked.

?I pushed him aside, jumped up off the

couch, and said, ?This is not a good idea,??

Susan replied. ?And?can you believe this??

I?m the one who picked up the slides, which by

now were scattered all over the floor. Then I

just got the hell out of there. I still can?t believe

Brian Hanson would pull a stunt like this. I?ve

worked so hard. How am I going to get past

this with him? Talk about the things they

never teach you in business school!?

Susan?s second line began to ring. She

paused briefly, hoping her assistant would pick

up. No luck. ?Nancy, I?ve got to run now,? she

said. ?Can we have lunch tomorrow? I really

need some advice.?

?Sure. I?ll come by your office around

noon.?

Susan hit the button for her second line.

?Susan Carter.?

?Susan, it?s Justin.? The line was crackling

with static. ?I?m on a plane to Chicago, but I

wanted an update on your meeting last night

with Brian Hanson.?

Just what I need right now, thought Susan.

Justin Peale was the senior partner in charge of

the Pellmore relationship. Tall, good-looking,

and athletic, Justin was one of Crowne?s leading rainmakers. The absolute confidence he

projected to clients gave them the sense that

no hill was too tough to take. But within

Crowne, Justin had a different reputation. His

colleagues respected him, however grudgingly, for his effectiveness in selling business.

But those who worked for him directly could

see that underneath all the bravado, Justin was

basically insecure. In fact, none of the junior

vice presidents liked working for him. He was

good at taking credit for work others did and

even better at distancing himself when things

went badly.

?Oh, Justin, I?m pressed for time right now,?

Susan said, stalling. The last thing she wanted

at the moment was to talk to Justin. ?I?m off to

Boston for a recruiting presentation. Then

there?s the reception and dinner. It?ll be a late

night.?

?Well, when can we talk?? Justin persisted.

?Not until tomorrow afternoon.?

?Okay. My office at 2?? harvard business review ? march?april 1997 ?Okay,? Susan replied, relieved to have

bought herself at least a day.

?Two o?clock, then!? Justin always had to

have the last word.

Hanging up the phone, Susan stared out the

window of her thirty-ninth-floor office at the

Manhattan skyline. She knew that Justin

hadn?t been wildly enthusiastic about her

being assigned to Pellmore two years earlier.

At the time, Linda Bushnell, the administrative

vice president responsible for client assignments, had pulled her aside. They had worked

well with each other for years, and Linda

wanted to give Susan a ?heads up.?

According to Linda, Justin was careful to tell

her that he himself had ?enormous respect?

for Susan. ?But we?ve got to do what?s right for

the client,? he said. ?They?re a pretty tough

bunch. I just don?t know if the guys at Pellmore will be comfortable with her. Will she fit

in? Susan doesn?t feel like the right choice to

me.?

In the end, Justin was overruled by John McMullin, the managing director of Crowne?s

New York office. Susan had been a loyal

trouper for Crowne, and John had promised

her the next high-potential assignment to

come along. He had kept his word.

John?s okay, Susan thought now. And

Crowne is a great firm. But the truth was that

she and Nancy had heard some version of Justin?s comments so many times during the years

since business school that they had invented a

name for it: the Comfort Syndrome. The two

friends knew dozens of talented women?in

their own firms and in client organizations?

who had been passed over for the same reason

Justin had tried to use to keep Susan off the

Pellmore account: ?We?re just not comfortable

with her.? Or ?We?re not sure it?s a good fit.?

And it wasn?t the first time Susan had encountered the syndrome herself, either. When

she first joined Crowne, for instance, there had

been some question about whether a client in

the steel industry would be ?comfortable? with

her. The guys at the client were ?very rough,?

the argument went. Would she be able to

?bond? with them? Despite this concern,

Susan was given the job, and the client ended

up being tremendously impressed with the results of the project.

Why is it, Susan wondered, that we?re never

uncomfortable with him? Not once in her four

years on Crowne?s promotion committee had page 2 This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Will She Fit In? ?? ?HBR C ASE S TUDY Comfort was a code

word. What did it mean

when people said they

were ?uncomfortable

with her?? she heard that phrase. Comfort was obviously

some kind of code, but what exactly did it

mean when people said they were ?uncomfortable with her?? She?s too aggressive? She?s not

one of us? Or what?

Susan was convinced that most men were

totally unconscious of the Comfort Syndrome.

Just the previous month, for example, one of

her male colleagues, someone she liked a lot,

called her for a reference on a woman she had

once worked with. ?A client of mine is considering her for a senior position. What do you

think of her?? he had asked. Susan began to

describe the woman?s considerable accomplishments, but her colleague stopped her short.

?No,? he said. ?That?s not it. They?re nervous about whether they?ll like working with

her.? He paused. ?You know,? he said, ?it

rhymes with witch.?

Susan had been stunned, but she was careful not to show it. If I try to explain to him why

that?s offensive, she thought, I?ll become one

of those women he?s uncomfortable with.

Susan was reminded of something her father

once said. He had been a fighter pilot and a

great supporter of Susan and her sister. ?To be

successful,? he advised, ?many women in your

generation will have to learn to fly underneath

the radar?to go undetected?in order to get

along.? This advice had always bothered Susan: she wanted to believe she could succeed

by being herself. But the older she got, the

more she came to understand what her father

meant.

Returning her thoughts to the incident

with Brian, Susan began to play out various

scenarios in her mind. Should I try, she wondered, to smooth things over with Brian? I

could use Justin?s help in thinking this

through, but that means I?ll have to tell him

what happened. And if I do, he?ll panic. He

might have me taken off the client?s account:

he?d do anything to avoid putting Pellmore

revenue at risk, and he knows Brian is the key

contact there right now. If Brian is upset with

us, forget about a budget increase. And if I?m

?moved? to another client, I can kiss my bonus

good-bye?and not just this year?s. I?ve killed

myself for the last two years earning credibility

at Pellmore. I?m finally at the point where it?s

starting to pay off.

I know what Justin will think, Susan said to

herself: This wouldn?t have happened if we?d

put Don Finley in instead of Susan. But maybe harvard business review ? march?april 1997 I?m just being paranoid. Didn?t Justin tell me

only last week that I deserve a lot of the credit

for growing the Pellmore relationship? And

hasn?t he been kidding me for the last month

about the beach house he thinks I should buy

with this year?s bonus? He couldn?t possibly

blame me for what happened!

Susan?s door opened. It was her assistant.

?You?d better get going or you?ll miss your

flight,? she said.

On the shuttle back to New York that night,

Susan couldn?t stop thinking about the irony

of the previous 24 hours: My client makes a

pass at me. I don?t trust my boss?or the

firm?with the truth. And then I spend an

evening with a group of eager M.B.A. students

telling them what a great place the Crowne

Group is for women. What?s wrong with this

picture?

Susan?s presentation at the business school

had drawn a packed house. And there were a

couple of really impressive candidates at dinner. This was a part of the job that Susan

loved: working with talented young people.

Crowne measured its recruiting success by the

number of bids it won against archrival Spectra Consulting. And in the previous several

years, Crowne had been gaining ground, especially among the strongest female candidates.

Susan knew she had a lot to do with that success. Whenever there was a woman Crowne

didn?t want to lose, Susan was trotted out to

win her over.

The sad thing, thought Susan wearily, is that

Crowne is, in fact, one of the better firms for

women. She closed her eyes. It had been a long

day.

Susan and Nancy always ate at Café Soleil

when they needed a quiet place to talk. After

the waitress brought their salads, they picked

up their conversation where they had left off

the day before.

?Did you see it coming?? Nancy asked.

?Had Brian been sort of coming on to you for a

while??

?No?not at all,? Susan answered quickly.

?I mean, I?ve been working closely with the

guy for almost two years. We?ve had at least

half a dozen meetings like this one in his

hotel room to review work. I thought we had

great rapport. Part of my job is to get clients

to like me, to build relationships. But there

was never anything flirtatious on either his

part or mine.? page 3 This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Will She Fit In? ?? ?HBR C ASE S TUDY ?So you had no clue what he was up to??

Nancy asked.

?No,? Susan said firmly, but then she

paused. ?There was one funny thing, though,?

she suddenly recalled. ?I really didn?t think

anything of it at the time. But maybe??

?What?? Nancy prompted her.

?It happened that night, before Brian and I

went back to his room. We were at dinner with

a bunch of people from Pellmore, and Brian?s

planning guy pulled me aside right afterward.

He said he was really sorry that he wouldn?t be

able to sit in on the meeting later in Brian?s

room. What was odd was what he said next. He

asked me, ?Are you okay with that?? I remember being thrown off balance slightly by his

question. I mean, I knew the details of the presentation much better than he did, so it struck

me as an odd thing to say since there didn?t

seem to be much reason for him to be there in

the first place.? Susan looked at Nancy,

perplexed.

?Do you suppose the planning guy knew

something I didn?t know about Brian?? she

asked. ?Do you think he?s got some kind of

reputation??

Nancy shrugged. The comment left her

wondering, too.

Susan pushed her plate aside. ?It?s not as

though I haven?t been in meetings with clients

in their hotel rooms?it happens all the time

in this business,? she went on. ?You?re always

on the road, you work crazy hours, and a lot of

business gets done over dinner and sometimes

late into the night.?

?Yeah, but try telling that to Justin,? Nancy

broke in, ?and he?ll want to know what you

were wearing. And, worse, maybe he?ll start to

think your success at Pellmore has been based

on??

?Don?t even say it,? Susan interrupted her

friend.

?Okay, but don?t be naïve, Susan. You tell

Justin, and whether or not he pulls you off

Pellmore, you can bet that this will come up

every time they evaluate you or think about

you for a new assignment. It may never be

raised explicitly, but it will always be there at

some level.?

?I think you?re right,? said Susan. ?The old

Comfort Syndrome rears its ugly head. And

this time, it?s about me.?

Susan?s thoughts jumped to the upcoming

account review. ?On the other hand,? she con- harvard business review ? march?april 1997 tinued, ?if I don?t tell Justin what happened

and our budget gets trashed because Brian?s

mad at me, I?ll be blamed.? Susan stopped. She

was getting ahead of herself.

?You know what?? she said after a moment.

?Isn?t there a bigger issue here? We both know

that most of the men we work with wouldn?t

do what Brian did. They would think it was

wrong. And from everything I know about

Pellmore?s CEO, this is absolutely not the kind

of behavior he?d tolerate. It goes beyond the

fear of lawsuits: he?s a decent guy, he has two

daughters in college, and he wants to make a

difference.?

?Finished?? asked the waitress as she began

clearing the dishes. Susan and Nancy both signaled that they were done.

?But maybe,? Nancy suggested, ?Pellmore

ought to be more concerned about lawsuits. I?ll

bet you a million dollars that this isn?t the first

time Brian has tried something like this.

Maybe the CEO really needs to put a stop to

this guy.?

?Maybe,? said Susan. ?How can he?how

can anyone?be an effective leader when we

all maintain this conspiracy of silence? When

we pretend everything is fine? Maybe the

same goes for Crowne. Maybe John McMullin

ought to know, too.?

?What do you mean??

?Well, most of the guys on our executive

committee?except Justin?are okay. They

just don?t always see the connections. I?m not

trying to be a saint here, and I can?t picture

myself ever saying anything about this to

John, but I wish there were some way to manage this so that something positive could come

out of it.?

?Or maybe it?s simply too hot to handle,?

Nancy said. ?You?re right. Most guys are not

like Brian. But a lot of them would say, What?s

the big deal? Get over it. They don?t understand that the easy part is saying no. The hard

part is picking up the pieces afterward.?

Susan looked at her watch. ?It?s 1:45,? she

said. ?I?d better run. It?s time for my meeting

with Justin, and you know how he hates to be

kept waiting.? Should Susan report the incident or

pretend it never happened? ? Five

commentators offer expert advice.

See Case Commentary page 4 This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Will She Fit In? ? HBR C AS E STU DY Case Commentary

by Gillian Derbyshire Should Susan report the incident or pretend it never

happened? If Crowne treats Susan

badly and blames her for

what happened, then she

has learned something

important about her

firm. page 5 On one level, Susan Carter?s dilemma is

straightforward. We all have problems with

clients or customers at one time or another.

When that happens, there is an obvious and

normal response: you assemble the client

team and you figure out an action plan to resolve the problem.

Suppose, for example, that the Crowne consultants had done some analysis for Pellmore

and that the numbers did not make Brian

Hanson look good. Brian might ask the consultants to position the data in as positive a

light as possible during their meeting with

Pellmore?s leaders. That probably wouldn?t be

a big problem for Crowne. The partner in

charge could easily respond with integrity,

?We?ll position the numbers as positively as

possible under the circumstances.?

But suppose Brian asked the consultants to

change the numbers in a materially misleading way. That would be a major problem. And

it?s the kind of problem the partner in charge

would be unwise to handle on her own. Better

to take it to her colleagues. In such a case,

would Susan be held responsible for the client?s behavior? If the firm?s leaders have any

traditional core values to speak of, I doubt it.

More likely, Crowne?s leadership team would

stand behind Susan and refuse to yield to the

client?s unethical request.

Following this logic, then, Susan should

take the Brian Hanson case to her partners. It?s

a business problem. Treat it like any other. As

for Brian himself, Susan has at least two

choices on how to deal with him. One is to

press forward as if nothing happened (the

What?s the big deal? approach) and see if he

takes the escape route quietly. After all, he,

too, has something to lose by having the incident exposed. Or she could talk to him and try

to salvage the situation gracefully: ?I must say,

you took me by surprise the other night. I?m

happy to put this behind us if you are.?

But, having made the case for treating the

Brian Hanson incident like a straightforward

business problem, one has to acknowledge

that Susan?s situation strikes a deeper, far

more troubling chord. Clearly, it doesn?t feel like a normal business problem to either Susan

or her close friend Nancy Richfield. Both

women have achieved all the visible manifestations of success. Susan is a partner at

Crowne?an elected member of the firm?s

leadership. Many regard her as a role model,

especially the younger female associates. But,

as many women in Susan?s position discover,

success feels qualified?conditional.

Susan?s ambivalence reminds me of a survey of senior-level business managers that I

heard about recently. The male respondents

generally reported that they felt ?accepted? as

leaders in their organizations. The women, on

the other hand, reported that they felt merely

?tolerated.? Imagine what it must feel like for

these women to step out on a limb?to challenge the status quo or to call attention to

themselves in any way. Think about it. An individual who is merely tolerated is not in an

empowered position that supports her taking

a leadership role.

Susan?s real dilemma is that, whether she

likes it or not, she must confront some fundamental issues about herself and the firm at

which she has made her career. She has been

asked by a client to do something totally unacceptable, and, as a result, she believes that an

important piece of the business may be at risk.

She obviously is afraid that she cannot count

on her ?partners.? This is a moment of truth. If

Susan is going to act as an accepted member of

the team, she must bring the Brian Hanson incident to her firm?s leadership.

But how? Susan correctly perceives that the

Pellmore revenue is at risk and that her ability

to manage the account may be compromised.

It is unlikely, however, that Susan would be a

partner at Crowne today had she not developed good relationships with some of her partners. Now is the time for her to use some of

the equity she has built up over the years. She

might approach John McMullin, for example,

or another member of Crowne?s executive committee who has supported her. Her objective

should be a mature and sensible conversation

about how to resolve the problem without

compromising the Pellmore business. harvard business review ? march?april 1997 This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Will She Fit In? ?? ?HBR C ASE S TUDY In the final analysis,

Susan?s story is one about

leadership, authenticity,

and integrity?not only

hers but also her

organization?s. But here?s the bottom line: If Crowne treats

Susan badly and blames her for what happened

in the hotel room that night, then she has

learned something important about the firm.

On the other hand, if she already knows that

the partnership will respond badly, then she

also already knows that she is working only for

the money. Although many women and minorities I have known find this bargain acceptable

for a while, over time the price they must pay

for living in ?bad faith? becomes too high. They

leave corporate America. Many join or launch

small, usually entrepreneurial ventures in

which biases and double standards, if they exist, can more easily be exposed and banished.

But they shouldn?t have to leave. That?s corporate America?s great opportunity today: to

create an honest environment in which harvard business review ? march?april 1997 diversity?defined in its broadest sense as diversity of thought and experience, as well as of

race, gender, age, and so forth?is respected

and valued. In such an environment, Susan?s

encounter with Brian would be a straightforward business problem. She would have

nothing to fear in taking it public. This is the

kind of culture that Susan?s firm and others

like it must cultivate if they want to retain

the competitive advantage that diversity in the

workforce can bring. For, in the final analysis,

Susan?s story is one about leadership, authenticity, and integrity?not only hers but also her

organization?s.

Gillian Derbyshire is vice president and general

manager of EZ Foil, a specialty-packaging business of Tenneco Packaging in Evanston, Illinois. page 6 This document is authorized for use only by SAMIR MESSAOUDI ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact

[email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies. Will She Fit In? ? HBR C AS E STU DY Case Commentary

by Anthony P D?Andrea

. Should Susan report the incident or pretend it never

happened? For once, making the

men she works for

uncomfortable is what

Susan must do. page 7 Susan is between a rock and a hard place. She

has succeeded in her career by doing all the

right things and playing by the rules. She has

understood the importance of not making

men ?uncomfortable? with her. But I think

she?s reached a point where all bets are off.

For once, making the men she works for uncomfortable is what she must do. Susan must

tell Crowne?s leaders about the Brian Hanson

incident. If she doesn?t, the underlying problem of the Comfort Syndrome will never get

fixed. The question is, Will Susan be true to

herself or is she such a slave to her paycheck

that she won?t risk the immediate consequences of speaking the truth?

Admittedly, the very fact that Susan has

been placed in this position is an injustice.

Why should she be the one to have to risk

anything? But doing nothing is worse. If Susan

allows this incident to pass without seeking redress, she?ll never again be able to look a recruit in the eye. More important, she may have

trouble looking hersel...

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