Dear Bob ... A manager who works for me is driving me nuts. We have a recurring conversation in which I try to explain that he isn't living up to my expectations and he tries to explain to me that he thinks he deserves the "director" title, which in this company would constitute a significant promotion. The manager is an excellent technologist. As a result I put him in charge of the data center and networks. The Dear Bob …A manager who works for me is driving me nuts. We have a recurring conversation in which I try to explain that he isn’t living up to my expectations and he tries to explain to me that he thinks he deserves the “director” title, which in this company would constitute a significant promotion.The manager is an excellent technologist. As a result I put him in charge of the data center and networks. The only problem is, they don’t stay up. Which is what I mean by his not living up to my expectations: I expect the core IT infrastructure to be available all the time. (And to answer a question you might be asking, no, he hasn’t had a bunch of capital requests refused – we’ve spent what he’s recommended on our systems.) How can I get this guy to spend less energy trying to get his next promotion and more of his energy earning it?– At cross purposesDear Cross … Bring your manager into your office. Ask him to sit down. Close the door. Speak these words: “You’ve asked me numerous times to promote you to director. Please stop. I need you to spend less energy trying to get your next promotion and more of your energy earning it. I’ll promote you to director when I see you managing at the director level. You aren’t. If you do, I’ll promote you. If you ask me again, I’ll demote you. It’s that simple.”The rest of the conversation is about what you consider a director to be. What follows might be of use:* Systems stay up and perform well. * Tracking systems are in place so there isn’t any debate as to whether systems stay up and perform well.* The manager’s staff know when systems are down or slow before the Help Desk finds out from users.* Demand management processes are in place to track performance and capacity and forecast increases in system load so that additional capacity is brought on-line before it’s needed. * Your manager can take a one-week vacation without a pager and nobody will know he’s gone because systems are in control.* Your manager is acting as chief architect, not chief troubleshooter.You can probably come up with more criteria, but this is a decent list with which to start. As an alternative to the above, you might consider whacking him upside the head and saying, “What is it about ‘you’re not doing the job you have now,’ that you don’t understand?”I don’t necessarily recommend this alternative. It’s self-indulgent and sarcastic. It doesn’t get the message across with anywhere near as much clarity.But it would be very satisfying. – Bob Technology Industry