Submitted by jbdoggett on
in
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Our manager of about 20 people recently sub-divided our group in to 3 parts. She assigned me to be responsible for the day-to-management, including one-on-ones, of one of the sub-groups. This is my first management role.
We've avoided change, except for one which is that I am doing the one-on-ones weekly, whereas she did them bi-weekly. We are getting a lot of push-back on this, which in hindsight, seems natural.
So, I'm looking for suggestions on handling this such as good words to push back with or would it be better for her to push back or for any other ideas.
Thanks,
Jesse
Who's pushing?
Who is pushing back? Your manager? Your group? And with what arguments? People are generally against change? That it takes more time?
Normally, directs are quite happy to be able to spend (more) personal time with the boss. Is it that they do not see you as their manager yet, and hence that they feel they now have less face-time with the "boss"?
I would say it is a very good change. Mark gives good reasons to have weekly updates in the podcasts, not every two weeks. With a group of 20 directs before the split, the force to lower the frequency was higher, but with groups of 6-7, weekly is perfect.
The directs are pushing
The directs are pushing back.
They are very high performing engineers, and highly focused on the things they produce. Some resent any time being taken away from being able work on those things they produce. So, doubling the management time looms big to them.
You make a good point about their perception of who their manager is. We are a resource group; everyone is matrixed out. So, I don't direct their daily work. Hence there is not much day-to-day management for me. My approach has been to only do one-on-ones and not yet broach the bigger management tasks. (Goals, development, etc) After another month or so, I'll get to those, so that may help when I am actively working with them on those things.
Thanks for your thoughts.