Submitted by miketickle on
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BLUF: A new guy is joining my project and a direct as reported that a skip is concerned about a "personality clash" due to "stuff" that happened in the past. How should I manage this?
Long story: 6 months ago I took over a project which has been going for about 3 years. I manage a team of project managers who manage matrix individual contributors (through contracts, through internal support functions and through a team of technical specialists). I'm in the process of setting up an industry partnership to supplement the the team or technical specialists on an outcome basis (rather than time and materials). The tech team queried the technical ability of one of the new guys due to start in a week and it turns out that technically he has a track record that suggests he's up to it. Now my direct has reported that in a O3 he had with with my skip in the tech team concerns were raised about the person due to a personality clash. The two have worked together in the past and did not get on.
If it make a difference I'm 5 weeks in to rolling out positive feedback having established 03's with my directs when I took over the project. A couple of months ago I got one of my directs to roll out O3's with the tech team (it was in one of those O3's that this concern was raised).
My initial inclination, which I have shared with my direct, is that personality is not a behaviour. I don't want to review what happened in the past. If I start seeing behaviours that are not professional I will tackle them with feedback (I invited the tech team [my skips] to the staff meeting 5 weeks ago where I briefed by team that I was rolling out feedback and I have given them positive feedback since them. I committed in that meeting to no negative feedback for 8 weeks).
Stay your course
Hi MIke,
I think you are handling the situation properly and you are spot on; personality is not a behavior. You are receiving hearsay, by definition, not anything you have seen for yourself. While it is true you may sometimes reasonably act on hearsay, if you trust the person it is coming from I am always very leary of succuming to the opinions of others. Often, personality conflicts are as much the fault as the complainer as the person about whom they are complaining.
A disruptive influence can derail a team. We also are paid and promoted by our results. Stay with the feedback rollout and manage the situation (if needed) that way. I am not prone to patience or coaching people and I found the feedback model to be a great help in learning to be manage people and convince them to do what is needed. You are on the right track so keep going.
Ed Zaun
DiSC Profile 7-3-1-2
Thanks
Ed
Thanks for the reply. What's in the past is in the past and if I see ineffective behaviour I'll use feedback. I'm going to listen to the resolving conflict cast just in case.
Cheers
Mike