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BLUF: I'm feeling ineffective in my new job (6 months) and am looking how to best to change things to feel more effective in the next 6. Bring it up? Keep my head down?
I've been in a new position for about six months - during that time I've felt an increasing sense of ineffectiveness. I was hired to in this organization mainly due to my demonstrated successes at previous companies. I have one direct in my newly created area and we're trying to managed three existing properties/brands and are trying to launch two more, both of which are "late".
My frustration stems from what I believed I would be doing, my talents, and my feeling of overall ineffectiveness. I'm looking for ways to bring this up to my boss, my previous efforts to develop priorities has been somewhat ineffective, for what I believe are a few reasons 1) he's not sure what the appropriate course of action is 2) he doesn't like spending money, so me recommending adding people isn't received well.
Since I'm outside of my talent area I'm concerned that more time spent in this position without saying/doing something is toxic to my career which was trending nicely.
What recommendations does the MT crowd have? How straightforward with my boss would you be/recommend about my frustrations? What recommendations would you recommend (I've reviewed the "How to Manage your Boss" and one potential issue I see is that my area isn't high on his radar (both his personal interests and professional knowledge).
Tim
Validate your feeling
You are in a new working environment and given this you might want to validate your feeling of ineffectiveness before speaking with your boss.
One way to do this would be to approach the clients (internal and/or external) of your team to understand their perspective on what are the important measures of success for your team, and how they see your team performing against the measures. This approach has the added benefit of highlighting to you any red flags or potential gaps in what you are doing, and point you towards establishing the priorities for your team.
Doing this also allows you to then be proactive with your boss and create a compelling case around team direction, strategy etc. which in turn will help support any proposals you may have around team structure and areas of focus / priority.
The added dimension of your boss being unsure actually gives you a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate your leadership and shape the direction of the team.
Good luck!
Tim - Based on your message
Tim - Based on your message I'm not entirely clear why you feel ineffective. In what way are you "outside your talent area"?
I can't tell if you are saying that:
- the workload your area is responsible for is unreasonable for your staffing level
- or if you personally are having difficulty being effective within the organization
- or if you feel that due to the size of your department you are having to do work that you don't feel you should have to do
- or you are having trouble getting the kind of guidance you would like to have or are accustomed to from your supervisor
or maybe something else?
I can't tell if you are
I can't tell if you are saying that:
- the workload your area is responsible for is unreasonable for your staffing level Yes
- or if you personally are having difficulty being effective within the organization Yes (more "politics" here, less streamlined departments)
- or if you feel that due to the size of your department you are having to do work that you don't feel you should have to do I only mind doing the work because it's very different than my traditional skills (think outside sales and cold calling for a technical marketing/ecommerce position) and very different than what I was expecting
- or you are having trouble getting the kind of guidance you would like to have or are accustomed to from your supervisor Yes
OK. I understand now. I'm
OK. I understand now. I'm numbering these now because for it makes it a little easier for me to break them down into manageable thoughts.
1. the workload your area is responsible for is unreasonable for your staffing level Yes
2. you personally are having difficulty being effective within the organization Yes (more "politics" here, less streamlined departments)
3. you feel that due to the size of your department you are having to do work that you don't feel you should have to do I only mind doing the work because it's very different than my traditional skills (think outside sales and cold calling for a technical marketing/ecommerce position) and very different than what I was expecting
4. You are having trouble getting the kind of guidance you would like to have or are accustomed to from your supervisor Yes
For #3 it sounds like the problem is not the specifically size of the department, but that the organization's approach to sales and marketing is significantly different than what made you successful in your previous positions. Is that more accurate?
So this is what it sounds like to me:
- Overall there is a disconnect between what you thought you would be doing and how you think the organization should work versus how it actually functions. Let me know if I'm off the mark here.
- There is a real opportunity here to grow and develop new skill sets. Figuring out the "politics" of a new organization can be daunting, but a great skill to have under your belt in this job and your next position(s).
- Your boss hired you because you were successful elsewhere. This is not his area of expertise so he may be expecting you to handle many of the problems you are bringing to him. Again a great opportunity for professional growth.
- I don't think you are going to get much support for changing #1 until you find a way to handle #2, 3 & 4.
In terms of #4, I've been on both sides of that situation. I've had a boss who had very little to offer me in terms of higher level guidance. Personally I don't need my boss to solve my problems, but I do like being able to talk through a problem with someone with more or different experience in order to help me see things differently or find a new solution. I'm lucky in that I have a very smart colleague and we were able to support each other for the sorts of high level trouble shooting that normally either of us would take to our boss. I've learned A LOT as a result, I've had to make decisions and solve problems well above my pay grade as they say and I'm (mostly) better for it. I say mostly because I ran the risk of overstepping my authority.
I've also been in the position where I've hired someone to do a job and they were not able to be effective. After they were hired they told me that the only way they could be successful was if they hired other people to do the work I expected them to do. In this particular case, I had done that job before so I knew my expectations were realistic. I had to resist responding to that person with: "if we need to hire someone else, then you are probably right and I don't need to keep you". I'm not sure about your situation, but I think you run the risk of being perceived as wanting to hire someone else to do what your boss was expecting from you.
I think some of these pod casts might be helpful to you, if you have not listened to them already. It's been a while since I listened to these, so I may be a bit off:
https://www.manager-tools.com/2007/01/the-juggling-koan
https://www.manager-tools.com/2011/10/developing-internal-relationships-...
https://www.manager-tools.com/2006/11/jump-starting-internal-customer-re...
https://www.manager-tools.com/2013/04/politics-101-chapter-3-myth-just-w...