What to do when you inherit a low-energy IT team

Dear Bob …

I just took a new CIO job. It’s a turnaround situation — the entire company knows it needs IT and is equally sure my IT is a complete waste of budget.

[ Also on InfoWorld, Bob Lewis has advice for managers taking on a new team: “You can have an early, effective impact as a new manager” | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ]

I’ve been here a month. The group I manage (calling it a team is overly optimistic) reminds me of Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh videos. Everything’s a problem, it’s undoubtedly going to rain today, and nobody likes them.

My direct reports — the so-called leaders — are, if anything, worse than the employees who report to them. They’ve made it clear to me that my problem is that I don’t understand how things are done around here. To give you a sense of how bad it is, I asked one of them to do something yesterday and he actually pulled out his job description and explained that what I asked for isn’t on it.

A few of the business managers have empathized with my situation. I try to be poker-faced about it, not wanting to undercut my own department, but it’s hard. A couple of the business managers also let me know that if I think my managers are bad, I should have seen my predecessor. He was here for three years, and in that time every manager in the company learned his response to any request: “We can’t.”

I want to give my I-wish-it-was-a-team the benefit of the doubt. My question: Do you see any way to turn them around, or do I have to write them off as damaged goods and start over?

– Drained

Dear Drained …

Let me summarize. You’re surrounded by energy-sucking vampires. You suspect your predecessor was Dracula — the energy-sucking vampire that turned them into energy-sucking vampires. Dracula is gone. He’s left his handiwork behind. They’re sucking your energy away, and if you aren’t careful you’ll turn into one, too.

You don’t have to write them all off. You will probably have to write off one or two — the ones who were willing volunteers.

What you have to do without any further delay is to let your maybe-they-can-become-a-team know what success looks like. Don’t just tell them, either. Write it down, in no more than one page of bulleted points. If they want to continue to be managers in your organization they need to (and these are just suggestions):

• Show initiative: You expect managers to look for what needs to be done that isn’t getting done. Those who do will find a lot of opportunity. Anyone who waits for you to explain it to them won’t be a manager in your organization.

• Find better ways: Managers are responsible for doing things better, not just for doing them over and over again. You’ll brag about their accomplishments throughout the company. Anyone who explains to you that they’re doing things the best way possible is going to find themselves reporting to someone else who has a more optimistic attitude.
• Engage their staff: Not only do you expect your managers to get great ideas from the men and women who report to them, you expect them to brag about the individuals who provided them.
• Collaborate with each other: Silos are what don’t happen in your organization. Neither does finger pointing. If something has to get done that crosses boundaries, you expect the process to be seamless, with the managers responsible working together easily; likewise the employees in their respective organizations.
• Replace “yes” and “no” with “here’s how”: A can-do attitude doesn’t mean saying yes to every request that comes in the door. It does mean never saying no. The way to accomplish this is simple: Understand the request and work with the requester to figure out the most effective way to make it happen, with both parties responsible.

Meet with your managers as a group. Hand them the document. Walk them through it — not tersely and angrily, but also not all Goody Two-Shoes. Project emphathy and professionalism, ask if anything is unclear, and at the end of the meeting, ask for their commitment.

Meanwhile, start preparing to demote or terminate one of your managers. It’s a near-certainty at least one won’t make it, and you need to be in a position to move quickly when the time comes.

So with your own manager’s assent, define a new managerial position and hire someone from the outside, preferably someone you’ve worked with before and know you can count on. Once you have this individual in place, you can reassign him or her to management of whatever group finds itself without a manager when you decide to make the change.

The new hire is important because he or she will provide proof that what you’re asking for is reasonable and proper and not the fantasies of someone who just doesn’t understand how things happen around here.

– Bob

This story, “What to do when you inherit a low-energy IT team,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com.