5 tips to help you manage people more knowledgeable or experienced than you

You have direct reports with decades more experience than you. Or you’ve been tapped to manage technical experts in an area you know nothing about. Better to leave them alone, since they know what they’re doing and will quickly discover that you don’t, right?

Wrong. Undermanaging experts can be seriously damaging for them and for your reputation as a leader. Even your most brilliant direct reports will struggle without support — and a clear sense of the big picture and how their work fits in. Plus, you’ll miss out on their valuable input and could quickly?lose their respect .

You don’t have to be a subject matter expert to effectively manage one, especially when you start with these tips.

1. Coach them on what to focus on, rather than how to execute.

Even if you could guide your expert direct reports in how to do their work, they likely don’t need it; they’re already great at it. But they do need your guidance on which priorities to focus on. Without an understanding of your team’s and company’s high-level goals, they may default to spending time on what’s interesting to them or executing something in a way that works technically but doesn’t meet your organization’s most pressing needs.

To help them stay on track:

• Be sure you and your direct reports are aligned on company and team goals.?You should be involving your whole team in?selecting and shaping team goals ?(if you’re not, now’s a great time to start!). This means:
• Seeking ideas on what goals to set or how to execute on targets that have been handed down from above (e.g.,?“Our top company goal this year is customer renewals — what’s the number one thing our team could do to contribute?”)
• Addressing disagreement (e.g.,?“I appreciate your commitment to globalization, and we do need to address international growth eventually. But given that 90 percent of our customers are in the United States, we’ll have a bigger impact on renewals if we focus there first”)
• Pledging to communicate compelling dissent to your manager (e.g., if an expert direct report makes a strong case that an assigned goal is out of step with the market)
• Ask probing questions about how well their proposed solutions will meet high-level goals.?Once goals are clear, highly experienced direct reports should have plenty of ideas for possible ways to achieve them. Focus on asking questions to help you and your experts determine how the proposed solutions will meet your objectives. For example, you might ask:
• “How will this approach help with our goal of X?”
• “In terms of our focus on priority Y, what are the pros and cons of this way compared to others?”
• “What time and resources are required to execute this approach? Is it realistic, given our constraints?”
• “What potential roadblocks could come up by doing it this way? What would we need in order to get past them?”
• During the execution phase, continue to reiterate what’s most important.?Experts can get caught in the details or feel compelled to do something to the highest quality possible when a quicker, less-than-perfect approach would better accomplish the goal. Your job is to help them focus their work on the bigger picture by reviewing high-level priorities?during 1-on-1s ?and project check-ins so they know when to adjust course or consider a current problem “solved” and move on.

2. Be curious enough about the technical details so you can understand what they do and make informed decisions.

You may be tempted to shy away from technical details.?It’ll take too much time to understand. They’ll judge me for not knowing this stuff.?But without a basic understanding of what’s involved in your experts’ work, you set yourself up for multiple credibility killers: making bad decisions (because you lack critical context), setting unrealistic deadlines (because you underestimate the time and effort needed to do what they do), sending the signal that you don’t value their work.

Instead, think of it this way: You’re really lucky to have smart, experienced direct reports to learn from. So, invest time in listening to technical updates and asking clarifying questions in a curious tone.

And seek their input, explaining how their technical explanations help you help the team when you want to:

• Make a case to higher-ups:?“You said this integration will be a lot more complicated than simply making an API call. Can you help me understand more about that so I can explain to my boss why I’m pushing for the longer timeline?”
• Make an informed decision:?“I’m thinking of doing X. Is there any technical reason why that’s a bad idea? I’d like you to help me understand the implications.”

3. Don’t shy away from giving feedback — just carefully calibrate it to each person and situation.

Giving useful feedback can be tricky when you don’t fully understand someone’s work. You might hesitate to criticize because you’re not confident in your knowledge. Or you may praise what you think is good work (but the other person sees as basic grunt work) while ignoring their excellence on a difficult but less visible task.

Instead of barreling ahead with your observations, which may or may not be on point, start by?asking your direct report what they think of the situation . You might learn about a technical roadblock that delayed things or a one-time windfall that led to a faster (but not repeatable) completion. To gain a more complete picture of the situation, ask questions like:

• “I’m interested in your perspective on the project — how do you think it’s going?”
• “What parts feel particularly hard or easy for you? Why is that?”
• “What has been surprising or unexpected about the project?”
• “What would you do differently next time? What have you learned?”
• “Where might it be helpful to have more input, support, or feedback?”

Then adjust your feedback based on what you learn. For example, you might temper critical feedback and launch a coaching conversation to help the person find solutions on their own (especially if you’re not able to give technical feedback):

“Ah, now it makes sense that you were delayed by that technical issue. Thanks for clarifying. Next time, how could you get past roadblocks like that more quickly? Is there another expert in our company who might help you troubleshoot or an outside resource you could consult?”

Or you might realize that the person deserves praise for something you had no clue about:

“I didn’t realize that bug fix was so challenging. I appreciate your extra effort in getting the resources you needed, devising a solution, and still finishing on time, especially since this project is so important for our customer renewal goal.”

4. Help them build skills in areas outside their domain of expertise, like communication.

No matter how brilliant your direct reports are in a certain area, they still have to operate in a modern workplace environment. They may need to know the basics of managing projects, communicating, giving presentations, navigating organizational processes, building relationships and teamwork, or any number of other skills.

So, what’s an area where you have more expertise than your knowledgeable direct reports — and their improving is vital to their success? Start with giving feedback in that area and offering to help. For example:

“I’ve noticed during department update meetings that you tend to share more of the technical details rather than why your project is important. But the nontechnical teams need to understand the business value of what you’re doing. I may be able to help here. Before the next meeting, would you be willing to work with me on some ways to tailor your message?”

Depending on the situation, how you help could mean giving a few pointers, coaching the person on how to do something and practicing with them ahead of time, or mapping a longer-term development plan with goal outcomes (for more, see our planner?Skill-building for the future ).

5. Connect them with other experts and resources who can push them in ways you can’t.

Highly skilled experts typically want to stay fresh in their field and keep learning how to get even better. If you can’t be the person to help them advance in their domain, at least be sure they have access to those who can. Doing so will not only help them feel engaged and perform their jobs better but also see you as a supportive manager who cares about their futures.

To start, be sure you regularly?invite career conversations ?in your 1-on-1s. Too many managers avoid these conversations with their most expert direct reports because they’re intimidated or presume that they don’t have anything to offer. Instead, speak honestly about your desire to help your direct reports learn and grow:

“If you’re open to it, I’m interested to hear about your career goals and talk through some ways I can help you meet them. Even though I don’t have your data science background, I might still be able to help you set goals and connect with other resources.”

You might help by making them aware of company benefits (like reimbursement for tuition, workshops, or certifications), securing budget to send them to a relevant conference, or offering to connect them to a more senior expert in your organization who could serve as a mentor. Just be sure to offer your help but not demand their action — you want them to feel empowered and supported, not pressured to do something because you suggest it.

Article by Jhana @ https://aap.jhana.com/coaching/5-tips-to-help-you-manage-people-more-knowledgeable-or-experienced-than-you/