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I have the framework (O3's, Quarterly Perf Evals, Feedback, Coaching...etc). I have my manager's support. Unfortunatly, my people are balking. How do I convince a team of people that have, untill now, were not really managed in this way that this is going to be good for them and our company as a whole?

So far, I have been called a "micromanager" and have only started O3's and a regular biweekly staff meeting. They REALLY complained about weekly staff meetings, and I folded and said I would reassess whether the biweekly staff meetings were working.

Mark, you weren't kidding about the "Welcome to THEM" comment. I have become....THEM....LOL

Brent's picture

I may be mis-interpreting this, but here's my take:

Why do you express the need to convince them that this is the right thing to do?

Why not just implement it for a few weeks, tell them you're going to implement it for a few weeks, then re-assess at that point? If you let them observe and experience the results for themselves, won't that be powerful to them? Wouldn't that be more powerful than someone (anyone) telling them that this will work?

Mark's picture
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Anton-

Well, if it were easy anyone could do it well.

If I remember right, you were looking forward to repairing the interpersonal damage that your team's previous boss - now in an individual contributor role - had done to the team. He wasn't a great manager, and internal customers preferred talking with you.

Under the circumstances, it seems to me that your team is just responding to the change in managerial styles. Their previous boss wasn't involved, wasn't active. NORMAL management WOULD look like micromanagement to them. What they want is no change... they're just not thinking at the moment what that would mean (the old boss).

You're the manager. Implement your plan. Supplement it with a real effort to get to know everyone (and their DISC behavioral profiles), and then help them see the value as you do it.

Keep us posted.

I think I said that someday those bitch sessions were going to be about you. Welcome to they.

Mark

PierG's picture

... and remember that it's a loop.:

If you start with something small that it's working AND you succeede to gring some of them on your side ... BOOOM ... it starts taking off.

PierG

P.S. Unfortunately, as you could experince, it wokrs the same way the other way around :cry:

AManagerTool's picture

Thanks guys,

I will stay the course.

ddavis's picture

I've just come out of the tunnel you are wandering down and there is a light at the end.

It was confirmed they other day when my biggest skeptic at the start of the process came and asked for a one-on-one that I had missed the week earlier.

The team is communicating better. Feedback is being passed down, up and sideways, but The most inspiring bit is that 'the way it was' is now viewed as something to avoid.

You're doing the right thing.

Mark's picture
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NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!!

Somebody said what I could not.

Thank you.

Mark

chaser's picture

I have gone through this a couple of times and am also currently going through it again. I work in an industry that is real hot right now, most of my team is truly capable of walking out the door and having multiple offers by days end. Normally an exaggeration, however we engineer and fabricate equipment for the oil sands in Alberta. They are currently at about 1 M barrels per day production and by 2015 plan on being at 3 M BPD. Many companies in the area are short hundreds of people, literally. I started here 6 months ago and have numerous opportunities.

Overall our environment is a very positive one. I come from a very rigorous background having worked for GE for 10 years previous to this. So most people feared that I would run this group like GE runs companies. I tried to take the best of what they had to offer and merge it with this culture. So far so good, I have only lost one out of 25 people and he left for a really great opportunity that we just couldn't offer today.

I took some time to evaluate the situation before making changes. There was no review process for projects before I started, they relied on each project manager to do his or her own. This was a problem because the manufacturing group, here or sub contractors, felt the pain of each project manager's "style". So I am having to implement some consistency into the process. This means bi-weekly project reviews. Some grumbling at first, but I really sat with each person and explained why we need to do them.

I often handle people's concerns privately and directly. Often you have to ask people very specific questions to get them to open up, but you also need to build a certain level of trust and respect.

Stay focused on the course your on, listen to the concerns, but don't react to everything, look for patterns and trends.

Keep us updated!

Ryan