Roger is a new employee in the office. As you have experience using the office system, Ryan, your supervisor, assigned you to help Roger learn the basics of the system. Although you believe the system is very intuitive and easy to use, Roger seems to be having a lot of difficulty following your instruction.
What should you do?
Tell Roger that everyone had an easy time learning how to operate the system and that he should not have any problems learning it.
Let Anna, who is more experienced than you, teach Roger for the remainder of the day and get back to your other assignments.
Ask Roger to do this later. You are becoming impatient and have other tasks to complete.
Ask Roger what part of the explanation is unclear. Try to provide detailed explanations to questions he may have.
Correct answer is D
Option D is the best response as here you are looking for the source of Roger’s problem in order to achieve results. You are demonstrating effective communication skills by asking Roger exactly what it is he finds difficult. You are also demonstrating adaptability by trying to change your approach to address the problem. You are being a team player by being supportive and offering to answer any queries to advance your colleague's understanding.
A. This response shows a lack of sensitivity towards your colleague and a poor understanding of social situations—an indication of poor social intelligence. This response is offensive. Not only are you pointing out his lack of success, but you are also belittling him by comparing his failure to other's success. This negative response could prevent him from effectively learning how to operate the system. Furthermore, you are demonstrating poor teamwork and communication skills, as you are not trying to establish a positive relationship with Roger. Finally, it is your responsibility to teach Roger, and blaming him for not understanding means you are not taking any responsibility for this learning process. This is a very poor response.
B. Letting a different employee with more experience than you teach Roger could be more effective. However, your supervisor gave you this task and it is not for you to delegate it to someone else. Furthermore, the problem here may not be dependent on level of experience, but rather the teaching approach used. By letting Anna teach Roger, you are not demonstrating adaptability in your teaching method. You are also admitting that you either lack the communication skills required to teach Roger, or that you lack the persistence of continuing to try despite experiencing conflict.
C. This is a poor response. You are giving up on the task you have been given. You demonstrate a lack of responsibility for completing the task, which, in turn, indicates a lack of conscientiousness. You are not looking for an alternative way of teaching Roger (as in choice B), suggesting your own lack of adaptability.
