Staff situation

[RatiTeen]

I have a staff who is promoted last year as a manager. They have taken manager job but doesn't work as a manager.

Few points list below:

• it's over a year now all the previous roles tasks are still performed by them. No tasks are delegated to their team members.
• Each and every 1:1 it's discussed and they agree that work should be delegated but no actions are taken.
• recently refused to train their new staters and said new starters can be utilised elsewhere, no time for training.
• comments like projects that are assigned will progress when I'll get round to it, this has become common sentence.
• workload is heavy for the team but shifting work can make things easier and senior team members can work more as SMEs but they like to continue to do operational work.

I have another team member who's junior but has picked up work and in 3-4 months ready to be promoted.

Anyone came across this before and how did you handled it?

I would look to escalate these points informally first with the line manager, have a conversation about your concerns. If you get no joy from that, escalate it further to their manager..

Do you manage this person?

It's been escalated to higher management as well. There's no change.

Yes

If you’ve had the informal discussion with them that you aren’t happy about how they are carrying out their role, you need to instigate a performance management plan and manage them that way, if they are not meeting or carrying out the requirements of the role.

Any plan should follow the SMART format and you should have evidence backed examples ready as to why they need performance management but ideally you’ll of had the conversation that their work is unsatisfactory you will have no choice but to put them on a plan. Get advice from your HR department too and make sure you follow policy.

As they're not meeting objectives, start with a development action plan with SMART goals. Escalate to a personal improvement plan if they fail the DAP. If they fail the PIP, then it's demotion or managed it via performance processes.

You are their manager & they are clearly not doing their job so you have to follow whatever the correct procedure is in your workplace in this situation.

It may be putting them on a PIP that leads to dismissal if they don’t improve.

However, if you are a manager & you don’t know what to do to manage your staff it’s a bit odd that you are criticising the manager below you for poor performance!

Obviously the individual isn’t responding to the feedback and while it stays at informal 1:1 chat level nothing is likely to change. Time for formal performance management.

As the points have been raised at 1:1s and there has been no improvement the individual needs to be put on a formal performance contract with SMART objectives and if they fail to meet the objectives the ultimate end will be dismissal.

It’s a case of underperformance, they aren’t operating at the level needed for manager, and need to be formally managed as such. Get HR involved to ensure that company policy is followed to the letter so that if there is no improvement dismissal can happen without further delays because process wasn’t properly followed.

Did you provide them with a new job description when you promoted them and were you explicit at the time that this superseded their old one?

I’ve come across this before that people think a promotion is just a way of getting an ego boost from a more senior job title and a pay rise and something which has been earned by number of years served and just don’t understand that it is actually a completely different role. So I’ve had to learn over time to spell that out for them at the time of the promotion.

Ultimately if they are only doing the duties of their previous role not their new one and won’t change their behaviour, you will have to either demote them and appoint a new manager or performance manage them out. But you need to make sure first they are crystal clear about what they are supposed to be doing and the consequences of not stepping up into the new role.

Can you present it as wanting them to become more strategic and less operational as befits their new position?

So ideas on the project to improve it but not actually doing it any more, for instance.

Force the situation. Give her a quick deadline (Wednesday?) to choose which projects she will be delegating. Follow this up with a meeting in which you list each project she works on and ask her if she is delegating it. If she fails to identify enough projects to delegate, simply state that you've actually identified certain projects (list them) which will be delegated from x date with hand over taking place x week. Then coordinate a meeting to officially hand over the responsibilities asap, don’t hang around. Important to chair any hand over meeting and agree tasks/dates/meetings/info/training to ease new person in. Keep checking in with new person, ensure there is a clear timeline for everyone to stick to

With the new responsibilities she should be doing, give her a date on which she will take full responsibility for the task. Ask her what she needs to do to meet this deadline as it’s not negotiable.

have you had a meeting where you go through his manager job description and discuss how he is or isn’t meeting each point?

It sounds like this person was not ready for their promotion. I agree with the advice of other posters especially @Dazedandconfusedma

Sometimes people don’t know how to delegate. As this person had time management/delegation/management training?

What is the point of the promotion if they haven't had to do higher level work, and thus have HAD to delegate things downwards?

Learning to delegate is actually really difficult.

In my industry you start as an assistant and get given a promotion because you’re really good at doing your job. Then all of a sudden you’re given more responsibility and get given a new assistant. You’ve suddenly got to do your new role and teach someone your old role. It feels like you haven’t the time, so it’ll just be quicker to do it yourself. Of course you can’t do it all and you need to invest the time, short term pain long term gain.

I remember so clearly my manager telling me week after week that I wasn’t delegating enough. But I just didn’t know how to let it go.

His solution was to review my to-do list in my weekly 1-2-1’s and tell me what tasks I had to delegate.

This was over 10 years ago and I remember it so clearly. At no point did I feel I was being performance managed, or warned about my performance. It was just a good manager helping me navigate my change in job role and learn a new fundamental skill.

Has the person had any training?
Just giving them a new title without any meaningfuk mentoring/coaching/training may be the issue.
We need to support our people's growth, it isn't automatic. We also need to be clear about expectations and objectives that ar measurable. With support in place to achieve them.
The amount of leaders who were just good at the job so got a bump but they had no guidance on how the job changes and what they need to do differently.