Who’s managing the managers?

Scott’s been a rock star on his software development team for years, has been recognized for his efforts and is moving up into management where he feels he belongs. Starting today, he’s a newly promoted director of application support at SuperMegaApp, a fast-paced, exponentially growing software company. We’re going to see how the first several weeks on the job look from his point of view:

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Week 1:

All my hard work has finally paid off. I’m so excited to hit the ground running and showcase my talent and my worth. My new role is to make sure the team (which I’ve just been promoted from) continues to run like a well-oiled machine. No problem. With my technical background, I’m confident I’ll see issues coming from a mile away. I’ve always loved having managers who could lean in, roll up their sleeves and work on issues with the rest of the team when things get busier, and I plan to do the same in my new position.

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Week 2:

I’m delegating tasks to a team of seven and work is getting done so effectively. I’m feeling confident, solving problems and putting out fires that have already started to emerge. And I’m leaning in just how I planned. For example, Stan wants to go home early today for a doctor’s appointment, but he’s got a deadline of 7 p.m. to complete his project task. It’s a total conflict. No problem. My skills allow me to step in and complete the work — on time and on budget. It’s like I’m built for this job. Do they give raises after the first 30 days? I might be due for one.

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Week 5:

Recently I’ve received a couple of complaints about my workforce. Some employees aren’t showing up strongly in meetings and I’ve been asked to find out what’s going on, especially with one of my programmers, Jerry. Geez, I really don’t have time for this. I’ve been picking up slack from some of my direct reports who are at capacity or even a bit overloaded. That’s where I show my value. But I better make an effort to figure this out. Isn’t that what a manager should do? My next opening is probably going to be next week — so I’ll throw a meeting on Jerry’s calendar for then. I’ve given us 30 minutes. That should be plenty of time to get to the bottom of it. I’m good with people and this sounds like it could be just a misunderstanding or, at worst, a scheduling conflict. He’s still getting his work done and that’s what’s important in the long run.

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Week 6:

We’ve got a break in our production development application and alarms are going off all over the place. I’d look into it myself, but I just volunteered to fix another bug that’s popped up in the HR system (and I had to bump my meeting with Jerry down the road. I hope he keeps it together until then). I’ve got to make a snap decision — and I’ll go with my all-star engineer, Sandra. She’ll get the issue fixed and, as a bonus, her reputation is so strong within the company that I expect the complaints to die down once everyone is aware she’s working on it. But, what is she currently working on? I can’t remember. Oh well — it’s an emergency and I’ve read somewhere that assigning work to your most capable people (versus worrying about their capacity) is a key to creating a high-performing team. The fact that I don’t have any time to gauge Sandra’s standing work volume is a problem to solve another day. I’ll just pull her from her current project to take care of this.

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Week 8:

An invite to a leadership retreat — yes. Finally, a seat at the table. Deep down I believe this is where I belong. I can’t wait to share my ideas — and I fully expect to get buy-in. Why wouldn’t I? I have good ideas about efficiency and optimization — that’s why I got promoted in the first place. Hmm, looks like it overlaps with my meeting with Jerry. I’ll reschedule with him in a couple of weeks — he will understand. I’ll send him an encouraging chat message in a few minutes — hopefully, that will motivate him enough to show up to meetings until we can have our conversation.

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If you are an experienced leader, you may already envision where this story is headed. Here’s how the next several weeks play out for Scott:

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1.?????? Scott’s top performer, Sandra, will leave the company after a recruiter cold calls her with an opportunity to do exactly what SuperMegaApp hired her to do in the first place. It’s the same job, maybe a little more money, but she doesn’t have to worry about dropping a project every time her manager can’t stay organized.

2.?????? Scott won’t attend the leadership retreat because — surprise, surprise — there is another fire to put out, and he’ll be the one firefighting.

3.?????? Jerry will continue to act as a poor team member. He’s upset that he was passed up for a promotion (Scott’s) and has decided to do the bare minimum. And he’ll continue to drag down the team’s morale and performance by doing so.

4.?????? At the end of the year, after running himself ragged and expecting accolades for keeping things together with “duct tape and super glue,” Scott will receive the worst performance review of his life. Particularly highlighted was the fact that company leadership has less confidence in his team’s capabilities than last year.

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When we look at Scott’s journey as a first-time manager, it’s evident there are a multitude of problems and a lot of background moving parts in which his lack of experience leaves him ineffective. But the No. 1 issue in this entire scenario is this: At no point in this story did Scott’s direct supervisor, or anyone else up the ladder from him, step in and provide guidance, expectations or any opportunities to build and develop his leadership skill set. It was assumed that since he’d been successful in the past, he’d continue to be successful. Scott continues to try to be an IT superhero, which is what earned him the promotion, instead of shifting to a more strategic mindset as a director. He never realizes what made him successful to this point is not what is needed from him going forward. Allowing him to continue working “in the weeds” in a technical fashion, rather than balancing and delegating resources effectively, is essentially setting him up for failure.

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In this story, Scott’s not equipped with the proper tools to deal with emerging issues around his people, in this case, Sandra and Jerry. You may have similar circumstances occurring within your organization today. It is absolutely vital for your organization to have someone — a director, an officer, or a coach — manage your managers. What originally positioned your new manager as a rock star — perhaps strong technical work — needs to be put to the wayside to begin developing their leadership skills. This step is the beginning of a leader’s journey and might be the hardest transition of their entire career, past or future. Giving this person guidelines or access to a coach provides a consistent and solid baseline for their development. With proper guidance, a newly promoted accounting manager may one day be your company’s CFO. Allowing them to stumble early in their leadership journey may dissuade them from continuing to grow into the capable executive they have inside. While supporting your managers is essential, you don’t have to do it alone. You can get them the coaching and training they need through Wipfli’s leadership development services. Let us help you support your emerging leaders so they can reach the potential you saw in them in the first place.?