Re: New Manager Needs Help!

[JGREY <JGREY -at- MADE2MANAGE -dot- COM>]

Pandora Zadro wrote:

>>She has said things like, "technically you are my
> supervisor, so I need your signature here," and "I could be the lead
> writer, but I don't want to deal with the politics." She has a great
> reputation in the company, and others seem to agree that she could
> indeed, be doing my job. She is very competent and knowledgeble
> about documents and the product. In fact, she was in charge of all
> the documentation before I came on board, and she has been very
> reluctant to give up ownership, even though she's also helping out
> another team. I have been taking on any new documents that are
> requested, but the bulk of the documentation is owned by the writer I
> supervise. When I delegated a piece of a project I had begun, she took
> ownership of the entire project without telling me! Then when I gave
> the
> status of the project to my manager, she contradicted me to him and
> gave
> him the status on her version. <<
>
Pandora, you have a power struggle brewing.  Sounds like this woman
resents you.  As Barney Fife would say, it's time for some serious
bud-nippin'.

Regardless of this woman's tenure, experience, and stature, *you* were
appointed manager.  With the position goes rights and priveleges.  One
of those is to be treated with respect by your subordinates; the three
incidents you mention show she isn't treating you with respect.

This will get uglier unless you immediately set behavioral expectations
for her, communicate them clearly, and begin enforcing them.  I would
begin with a private meeting with her.  Tell her what you've been
noticing in her behavior.  Tell her what you expect in her behavior
(framing it as appropriate behavior between an employee and her
manager).  Should she pull one of these games again, *immediately* take
her into a private office and explain to her that continued behavior
will result in disciplinary action.  Document your meetings; send her
follow-up memos recording what you spoke about and keep a copy for your
files.

As you can see from my response, I'm not particularly optimistic about
situations such as this.  I would be interested to hear how other
managers have resolved problems such as this so that the employee became
happy in his/her position again.

Peace,
jim

> jim grey \ Documentation Manager
> Made2Manage Systems, Inc. \ jgrey -at- made2manage -dot- com