Line Management Challenge

[Missiing]

Name change but regular poster. I’m really struggling with a member of staff. I work as part of a leadership team in a large company and have about fifteen staff who report to me and then oversee another department which is managed by one person who oversees five or six others.

I am really struggling to work with the colleague who leads this department. I actually find her really personable and she comes across like she knows what she’s taking g about and plausible initially, but as time has gone on it has become apparent that 80-90% of what she says is totally untrue. Her area of the business is new to me, although I’ve managed similar before, and she will tell me about how processes work or be incredibly patronising while also telling me that another colleague has told her x has happened and it will be complete fabrication or misrepresentation and I’m finding it very difficult to trust them.

Recently she told me a member of her team had said something and I felt the need to follow this up as it was HR related - upon doing so I found out this employee hadn’t said what was implied at all and in fact the opposite observed by witnesses. This is one of many examples - telling me one thing and it turning out to be another; complaining we haven’t had meetings when we have and I have the dates and times and minutes recorded; emailing me and challenging me on things that I’ve supposedly said or others have that are untrue and just generally questioning every decision and being increasingly hard to work with.

This manager appears to gaslight constantly and takes 0 responsibility when anything ever goes wrong but because they come across plausible it is incredibly difficult to manage and I’m not really sure how to tackle it or turn things around. I want to work closely with this colleague and I’m really open to sorting things out but I’m struggling hugely to see a way forward. As you can tell I’m up at 2am trying to find a solution again.

any ideas or suggestions? Been through similar?

What a pain.

First, I would let go of the notion that you can work well/closely with this colleague as she clearly isn't interested in the same.

If people habitually lie it's usually quite easy to reveal that. I wouldn't get caught up in the "he said this, she said that" that you have described, I would have a dig around into the operation of whatever she's responsible and see what she's hiding. Bet you'll find some skeletons and that it won't stand up to scrutiny. Then you act on that. Much easier than all the other nonsense.

Also build relationships with the people around her, that will disrupt her a bit.

But - you come across these people once in a while, they are disruptive to the business and difficult to deal with. If you can, find a way to get rid.

Thank you so much! This is the first person I’ve worked with like this in 15 years. I have dug around a little and when I find errors they will tell me it’s my understanding that is the problem or send me an FYI that is gaslighting. It is increasingly frustrating as the rest of the almost entire team are so open to working closely.