New senior manager - team member not working at the level I need.

[Humperdinck]

I’ve started a job in the last few months and I absolutely hate it. I’m looking for a new role but I’d still like some advice on this situation.

I have a team member who isn’t working at the level I need them to. They manage a team but I’ve recently found out they used to be part of that team. They’re still identifying too much with their line reports and can’t seem to see the bigger picture.
Also, in a recent meeting, when I gave information and made a decision their question was ‘does X know about this, what do they think?’, where X is my manager.
I felt it was very undermining.

The other members of my team are mentioning their behaviour as they’re blocking work. One of the biggest concerns I have is that they’re not passing information on to their team, they’re holding on to it as they feel their team is too busy. I think they don't want to have challenging conversations with their team.

I’ve spoken to them and explained how I need them to work. Their behaviour is getting worse and it’s getting noticed across the organisation. I am meeting with them next week to discuss this.

How would you approach this? I’m finding them very frustrating and I want to be calm and measured.
HR are useless.

TIA

Performance manage this person - set milestones in writing for them to achieve.

And if they dont - disciplinary and fire the useless fucker.

This 100%

Time
For a PIP.

Thanks all. I know it’s coming to this!

Informal performance plan, for a few weeks make expectations clear around driving team performance and not withholding comms, followed by a formal PIP if no improvement to the required level. Come on you say you're in senior management, these are the basics.

You need to speak with them about their performance. Set expectations clearly, provide timescales, review in a couple of weeks and so on. If after a month they havent improved move to formal poor performance.

Why are HR useless?

Thanks @TEDPIEridiculousness2024, I’ve had an informal discussion with them already but the problem’s compounded by the org not having any formal processes in place (HR are useless).

I know what I have to do but I have little energy to do it because I want to be gone 🙄

I have two issues with your post:

"they used to be a part of the team they now manage". And the issue with that is? I was promoted out of and above my original team - it's a hard gig.

Why precisely are HR useless? Have they not advised you about the performance management procedure? Oh, I do hope you don't expect them.to manage for you and dismiss without you providing the evidence.

It is up to you to set objectives, and take forward the progress meetings and to make sure there is a record of them and evidence of support.

Why aren't there formal procedures. How big is the company and how big is the HR Department? Your report is useless. HR are useless. Who else is useless?

Hi @RosesAndHellebores, you sound very worked up. Feel free to move on.

Why are HR useless?

In the absence of any organisation policy on performance (which is odd) I would use the employees job description to set the expectations and timescales.

Why is HR useless? To be fair, managers manage and this isnt a responsibility for HR usually. As a senior manager am sure you have managed performance so this should be fairly easy for you.

What sort of organisation do you work in?

I think you probably know what you need to do, but performance management is hard work and you can't really be bothered because you've checked out. (Or at least if you're snr management, you've gotten very lucky to not have to performance manage someone working below par before)

Have you found out the root cause of the issue? Ie is the team overworked and the manager doing their best to protect them from more work, something they feel previous management failed at? Or is she struggling with the mental transition into management and could do with some more support (perhaps a mentor? Management training tends to not cover the mindset but very well)? Or is she actually struggling to performance manage a team who still see her as a peer and she needs your help to set the new tone?

Have you actually set objectives? (That are actually SMART) Getting the hump because she questioned a decision ("does X know about this?") seems a bit foolish when you're new yourself

@Humperdinck I can see why you find managing staff so hard. Did you mean to be so rude, or does it just come naturally?

This. You say HR are useless and their are no formal procedures and this person has recently been promoted out off the team to a management position. As you say this can be hard, and if HR ware useless, what support has this person had to move up into this role. Have they had training and clear objectives before? Have you set any? What's the reason they are trying to protect them team when busy, as the pp says is it because they have too much work, or procedures and processes around the business are generally poor. It's not a managers job just to do exactly what you say and never query anything. They should also be advocating for their team where appropriate, and I agree that you are being way too over sensitive re her querying your decision, it isn't her job just to blindly accept everything you say.