Submitted by clymusa on
in
Forums
Hi All,
I'm a new manager to this organization. In my past life I managed at most 6 DR's. In this new org I'm tasked with 14 DR's not including 4 contractors. In about 6 months 4 more will be added to me due to mergers. They are split into 9 specialized teams
I've done One on Ones with all 18 of them EVERY WEEK. Its proven invaluable but lately its filling my entire week and leaving me with a lot of other work not caught up. 30 mins each is 9 hours a week. They like it as the get facetime with me and I like it because I get much needed details. I tried to save myself from drowning by reducing it to 20 mins each which is 3 every hour. That helped but its just the same amount of data frequently needing another meeting to sort out.
They're a good bunch of self motivate people for the most part, some minor siloing of information, but smart and hardworking.
I'm looking for advice in the following questions for anyone else with this many DR's:
- Should I make Team meetings instead (2-3 people /hr)? plus 2 "office hours" for their personal issues.
- or; continue the 20 minute One on ones (have you every tried booking 20 minute meetings in Outlook? Its a pain...
- or; have one on ones every other week? plus a main Team meeting with the whole team.
- or; try some other system
They've been through a lot of changes over the past 4 years and have expressed concern that I would quit.
TIA!
Too many DRs
Hi TIA,
I would recommend going to alternating week 1:1s with perhaps a 30-60 min block set aside every week to fit in any 'can't wait' issues.
Good luck,
Andy
Reorg
Could you reorganize your team so that you have fewer directs? Divide the team up and appoint a team lead.
delegate more
Have you listened to the Juggling Koan lately? If you have 18 directs, and they're a smart and hardworking group, then you have a great opportunity to delegate some of your smaller tasks (the stuff that's getting behind) to your top performers, or, as others have suggested, get the very best ones into leadership roles where THEY can host one on ones with more junior team members. The higher you rise, the more of your job is going to be about the people and less about the stuff you do yourself.
Embrace the "fourth" part of the trinity: DELEGATION.