Messaging

[Lushmetender]

I am a team lead in a corporate organisation. I keep getting pulled up on my messaging which i duly follow. However my boss keeps saying my staff keep bringing up new procedures as issues when in meetings with senior leaders. Yet my staff are simply trying to suggest improvements which is falling on deaf ears. How do you handle this situation? I work with very professional excellent staff and would hate not to be able to improve if we can if they have good suggestions. My manager says I need to ensure there’s closure and move on
And need to improve mu messaging as it’s makes our leaders think staff in my team are not happy. Any tips here? I have had no leavers in my team at in 3 years so I feel I’m doing something right - my manager always makes me feel I’m failing however!

What is the messaging you’re being pulled up on? It sounds like your staff have been led to believe seniors want them to provide feedback about the new procedures, where in fact they do not. If it’s your messaging that led them to that conclusion then that’s where the problem is.

As team leader and the layer in between, you need to manage the expectations of your staff. You should be the ears that are hearing their ideas, and be funnelling them upwards if appropriate (or shutting them down if appropriate) - not allowing and condoning a free for all with seniors. Not all their ideas will be good, or feasible, and you should be the one to handle that.

Having no one leave for three years is not necessarily a good sign by the way - is no one developing and moving on, for instance? Are you so permissive that they know they have a cushy life (just an example, I’ve no idea from what you’re written). You might also have the many old timer crew who are a pain in the neck to seniors.

We had something similar. Top boss asked for staff feedback on issues. Feedback given then our immediate bosses moan that we are making them seem incompetent because we raise issues they’re not dealing with!! It’s all bollocks it makes no sense.

@Lushmetender

I am a team lead in a corporate organisation. I keep getting pulled up on my messaging which i duly follow. However my boss keeps saying my staff keep bringing up new procedures as issues when in meetings with senior leaders. Yet my staff are simply trying to suggest improvements which is falling on deaf ears. How do you handle this situation? I work with very professional excellent staff and would hate not to be able to improve if we can if they have good suggestions. My manager says I need to ensure there’s closure and move on And need to improve mu messaging as it’s makes our leaders think staff in my team are not happy. Any tips here? I have had no leavers in my team at in 3 years so I feel I’m doing something right - my manager always makes me feel I’m failing however!

I can’t make any sense of your post. What has your messaging got to do with your teams ideas? I can’t work it out, could you give an example of what you mean.

You might need to clarify that a bit, OP. So you are telling your team about new procedures, and they are responding by suggesting other ways of doing the same thing? The comment about 'closure' makes me think that you/your team are spending a lot of time circling round the same issue rather than just getting on with it!

I can't understand your OP and I'm not the only one. Looks as though you have things to work on.

Yes, it sounds like the same issues are repeatedly being raised. So you need to either take action or explain to staff why it won't be changed.

Agree with PP, staff staying indefinitely is not a good thing. In fact this exact problem often happens when staff have been in the role too long.

Not sure what you mean by your “messaging” but I would say feedback about new procedures should be delivered in an appropriate way, which is probably not by your more junior staff directly to senior staff uninvited. Your team should feed back to you, and then you should raise issues with the appropriate person at the appropriate time/forum for doing so.

Basically there are new procedures all the time but the leadership team set up split level meetings with junior staff to check the mood on the ground and they invite them to comment on hot topics. They were initially set up because many staff were leaving and they wanted an opportunity to catch any potential flight risk and ensure they felt then leadership team were listening to them.

And what do you mean by your “messaging”?