Experienced staff but poor delivery

[RatiTeen]

I have a staff who's in a people management role. They seem to like to be manager but doesn't pick up on people management tasks eg delegation. It's been a year and it's very clear that they enjoy doing tasks by themselves. I have spoken numerous times and my manager has also spoken to them few times. Due to taking team's work (instead of passing on to their reports) the delivery of their activities are poor. I have given many option by asking to write down everything they working on and what can they pass on with no success. Direct communication is also not helping. When I add some deadlines to deliver something they go on sick day.

Problem with all this is:

• They like to do things like troubleshooting. Other dept staff likes them as they are getting all the help. They are classed a high valued staff (and I agree that they provide great support but this should be provided by their team).
• The direct reports are twiddling thumbs as there's not much going to them. When I raise it they keep saying due to busy workload there's no time to teach and handover things. All the work they have is too complex and cannot be given.
• I am not adding more report to that team now due to lack of management. This is make them quite uneasy and our 1:1 seems to become one way conversation. There's complaining all the time that how busy they are and cannot take more.

Any suggestions??

I cannot get rid of this staff as they are supporting other dept well but that's not the role (this use to be previous management style where managers were doing all the work and were giving few tasks only to the reports).

this use to be previous management style where managers were doing all the work and were giving few tasks only to the reports

Have other managers also changed or are you just asking this one person to change when others are continuing in the traditional way for the organisation?

What training or coaching has the person received to develop the skills to work in the new way? Or just badgered them telling them to do it?

What has the organisation done to train up the juniors for more complex work? Or has that all been left on this one person's shoulders without any additional resource or support?

What will they gain from giving up parts of their job they enjoy whilst having to work extra hours to meet your demands to train junior staff in complex work whilst under pressure to meet your imposed deadlines?

What are you actually doing to support them?

I'm not surprised that they are frustrated and complaining. Based on what you've described, I think your approach has been poor and it reflects badly on your own management skills. You want them to magic up time to train other staff on complex tasks but you don't seem to have done any training or coaching yourself?

There are two managers (both moved in manager role last year) and one has picked up well.

Yes the intense managing team training is been provided to both. These trainings are part of company's curriculum for all new managers.

The future state is also communicated to managers and junior staff members. The juniors are willing to take on more and learn new skill sets that fits in the future state.

Currently the situation is only with one manager and that's impacting two reports.

Please further thoughts. Open to hear other suggestions.

What are you doing to support them?? - I'm looking into their workload and help them to assess to see if any old projects which has routine steps can be handed over to junior staff memes. They are currently not loaded with new project till current workload is reduced. The response I get is "what I do is too complex and no one else can pick it up. It takes months to learn". I'm trying to see if there are some written instructions can be drafted that gives an idea in what actually the workload is? What's the weekly/monthly requirement is? I hear a lot that "it varies" "it depends". I'm unable to even hire additional resource for the manager who can help them out due to less information on the actual workload.

The response I get is "what I do is too complex and no one else can pick it up. It takes months to learn".

Your response to that has to be to insist that other people are given the opportunity to pick it up, though. There's such a critical person risk in that kind of attitude - what happens if the manager goes on holiday, or gets sick and no one has been allowed to know the processes to keep things running?

If I were you I would start with some reported and monitored KPIs that would both put pressure on the manager to delegate, and also allow you to monitor progress. Agreeing a ramping up of those KPI targets over a period of 6 months would be fair.

If I were you I would start with some reported and monitored KPIs that would both put pressure on the manager to delegate, and also allow you to monitor progress. Agreeing a ramping up of those KPI targets over a period of 6 months would be fair.

agree, but ensure its badged as an informal PIP and failure to achieve it could lead to a formal PIP process in relation to their management responsibilities. Get HR’s support.