I am a technical director that is getting a new group added to my team that I know next to nothing about. When I say next to nothing I mean the technology they support. I started my career in "my" specialty and have worked my way up the ladder. So, I am completely comfortable managing the current team.
The current team consists of 2 manager DR's who each have 10 DR's. The new group has 2 members and we are going to hire a supervisor who will be my DR. I've been tasked with writing the job description for that supervisor. As an added bonus this new group is highly dysfunctional. These two have been bounced from supervisor to supervisor in an other department, and they are infamous in the organization. My boss wants this to stop and to improve customer satisfaction. As a high D I love a challenge, and I just keep on telling myself that.
My question is does anyone have any pearls of wisdom on managing a dysfunctional group that you know little about their actual job?
Share the objective and ask for their input.
Hi,
Others may have a different approach, but this is how I'd approach it.
To start with, you have to be honest. Let them know that you don't know a whole lot about their technology and that you want them to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible. You could even ask for them to give you a high level over view session where you can ask them questions, and listen to them. They will work it out very quickly if you don't do this and that won't look good.
Then, share with them what the objective is. 'Improve' Customer Satisfaction is vague. Will a 0.001% improvement suffice? If it is at all possible, work with the team members to set the objective. If they are currently at 80% and they commit to targetting 90%, then that's more likely to come off than you specifying that they need to get to 90%.
Doesn't mean you have to set soft targets. If they are suggesting 82%, then you ask them what are the barriers preventing them from getting much higher. If they can list out their barriers or concerns, you can then ask them 'If we can deal with all those barriers and concerns, how high can we set the target?'
Once you have the target that they agree to and that the organisation can work with (even if it is a mid-way point to an even higher value further down the track) then the fun of regular management starts. In team meetings, ask for and listen to their ideas on how they can achieve their targets. Allow them some rope while you are learning the business. Start your one on ones. Keep track of progress and results. Help them eliminate the barriers and concerns. As you get to know them, they will hopefully tell you their frustrations with the recent past, and you have been charged with improving their effectiveness which, in part, means addressing those frustrations.
Hope this helps.
Kevin
Build Relationships and Go Slow
I did something similar about a year ago. I took on a team of 15 (1 supervisor + 14 team members). The key for me was getting to know them. In some ways it meant putting my other projects on the back burner for a short time but I spent as much time as I could squeeze out with them as soon as possible. I kept in mind the M-T principle of relationship, relationship, relationship. It took them awhile to really trust me because they had come from a very different culture in another department.
I had plenty of changes I knew I wanted to implement as soon as I got in there but I also knew that I needed to pull back and work at a much slower pace to begin with. I needed them to first fit in with the culture of my existing department. I chose the objective for improvement that would have the most impact/visibility for our current department and focused on getting them to track for just that one. Once it was successful we were able to start tackling more things. And they knew that while I wanted them to change it wasn't going to be a full elimination of their existing culture.
Good luck!
No blaming no shaming, yes accountability
Outstanding advice from Suzanne and Kevin.
Here's an additional thought. (There is at least one podcast on this and for the life of me I don't remember it.)
Tell both of these two "infamous" people that you don't care what reputation they might have elsewhere or what other managers thought of them, that you are starting with a blank slate, and you want them to be accountable for "results and relationships" -- and follow Kevin's advice above on the topic of specific goals for their group.
Next, as a CIO I interviewed recently put it to me, don't allow vague negative statements to go unexamined, neither ABOUT these two nor FROM them. Use a gentle, adult-to-adult, relaxed-and-curious style and inquire about the "why behind the why" -- in one example a group was criticized for "being 16 weeks late." This CIO stayed calm, not defensive, not attacking, and asked the speaker for more information, and shared his own -- namely that this group was on its third 3-week development sprint, and thus were under 9 weeks into the project. (Turns out the project had been talked about for MONTHS but been stuck in not-yet-funded limbo... a fact of which the business users and sponsor weren't informed.)
As you hold people accountable for results and observable behavior, as you use the feedback model, systemic feedback, one-on-ones, and so on, either they will shape up, or you'll find they were always good but tragically misunderstood, or you'll build an ironclad case for their termination (allowing them to find true happiness elsewhere).
Suzanne's advice about patience and relationships is spot-on. And I really like Kevin's ideas about having them explain their technology to you.
- Tom Cox
www.TomOnLeadership.com
Remember that you don't need to be a technology expert
There has already been a lot of excellent advice given. The one piece that I think is important to remember is that you don't need to be an expert in the technology to manage the team effective. So don't get hung up on being ignorant of the technology. I guarantee to you that the CEO of Samsung doesn't understand the nuances of touch displays or android, but it doesn't stop them from managing the people who do the work.
My experience having going through this a few times is that you should leverage the customers your new team supports. That will give you one side of the story and then you can listen to what your team says. That should give you the full picture. Then it's the simple block and tackle of managing - establish relationships and start giving feedback when appropriate. If the team is dysfunctional, you may need to make some significant changes. But resist the temptation to do it fast. 6 months is the fastest I would do anything drastic.
Best of luck.