Crossing the management divide

Bob,

I thoroughly enjoy reading your weblog and KJR and am taking much of your advice to heart. I have a strong technical background and well-honed commuication/people skills (former consultant). I just got hired by a major University to work as a manager for a small ERP project (7 reports). I ran a small consulting business and have managed one or two people before — but it was pretty informal. I read your May 20 weblog entry – which advised a new IT director to keep quiet, learn the political landscape and have a 65-day plan. I also noted your advice about how to handle an internal candidate who now reports to you.

I asked and was told that there was an internal candidate for my manager position, and that she will be reporting to me. She’s been working in the IS department at the university for 10 years, and the director I will report to told me that the employee’s a great worker, but just didn’t have the skills to interface with the larger campus community.

Clearly I’m not going to meet her and tell her we’re forming a mutual admiration society or she’s got to hit the road… What would you advise – and also do you have other general advice for someone taking on a more substantial manager role for the first time? Books I should read, websites, etc?

Thanks!

– Getting Started

Dear Starting …

Sounds like you have a terrific opportunity. Congratulations.I’m not sure how much advice I can give you that isn’t what you already know. Here are a few possibilities. How useful they are will depend in large part on exactly what you’re being given in the way of a project.

You’re taking on an ERP project. Has it launched already and you’re coming in mid-stream? If so, your major challenge is coming up to speed on the project plan and where the team is in its execution. Otherwise, it’s standard fare as far as making sure there’s a clean launch.

You don’t say how strong your project management background is. In case it isn’t extensive, a few suggestions:

1. Make sure the plan doesn’t provide much opportunity for “70% finished” status reports. I’ve seen projects go from green status to red in two weeks because of this. It’s just too easy for a project team member to report that a task is on track – 70% done – not because of any prevarication but because there really isn’t any way to know. Tasks should be granular enough that you can tell if each team member is getting work done through the creation of tangible work products.

2. Hold weekly team status meetings. They’re mostly to go around the table twice. The first time, each team member reports to the team on the tasks that were supposed to complete that week. You can’t accomplish the same thing through written status reports – your goal is to apply peer pressure: Late team members have to tell their peers they missed their deadlines. Beyond that, they get to ask for advice and help. If they’re late, do ask, in the meeting, “What’s your plan for getting back on schedule?”

That’s the first time around. The second is quicker – what each team member will be doing the following week. The point of this is so that everyone knows that everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing.

3. Business sponsor: Make sure you have one. If nobody in the business wants it enough to meet with you once a week to review status and issues, you can be sure you’ll be hung out to dry at the end.

4. Save the Gantt Charts for the sponsor. Your team doesn’t want them. They need a task list so they can easily find their name and see what’s going to be due, and when.

If you’re an experienced project manager, I’ve just wasted your time. Sorry.

Now about that employee who wanted the same job. Why aren’t you going to meet with her?

It doesn’t have to be a harsh meeting. I would advise you to have it, though. All you have to say is, “I understand you applied for this job, too. I don’t know how you feel about not getting it, or what you’ve been told regarding why you weren’t selected. It’s easy for a situation like this to become awkward, though, so I wanted the two of us to have a chance to talk through any issues and to make sure we’re both clear about our expectations regarding our working relationship. So first, what are yours?”

As far as general advice for first-time managers, the best advice I can give is this shopworn but frequently ignored advice: Praise in public, criticize in private. This isn’t just advice about where to do each, by the way … it’s to make sure you do both.

Public compliments for genuinely good work are highly motivating. Don’t be too liberal with your praise, or you’ll devalue it. Do make sure you find things to praise in every staff or status meeting, even if it’s nothing more than, “I know that was a difficult meeting last week, Julie, and I wanted to compliment you on your patience.” Also, do your best to be even-handed, even though some staff members will always be stronger contributors than others.

Criticism: Don’t withhold it. If someone isn’t getting the job done, they need to know about it early. You aren’t doing them any favors by pretending. The key is to make it forward looking: They aren’t performing satisfactorally; you’d like to know the reason so you can provide whatever assistance you can to help them be successful. As someone once put it, offer help but don’t take away responsibility.

Last piece of advice: Beware of the “Pass the Monkey” game. First-time managers frequently fall for this. It’s the game where employees delegate work back to the manager, and the manager is foolish enough to accept it. Get very good at asking this question whenever it looks like an employee is trying this gambit: “So what’s your plan for dealing with this?”

I hope some of this is helpful.

– Bob

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