Civil Service - how can I manage this situation better?

[howtobeabettermanager]

I've been asked to temporarily manage a team - to help raise their performance. One of the team is very impressive, very passionate and hard working - I really admire her. But I am finding her exhausting. Everything I ask the team to do she pushes back on. I've tried every technique including speaking to her alone, as part of a team,, consulting with her before we do anything ,providing long explanations, doing half of the work myself by way of example and asking others she respects to speak to her but nothing works. She speaks over me in meetings and insists on working on other documents every time we speak/have a Teams mtg.

Today I lost patience - I'm not proud and want to learn how to manage the situation better. I had commissioned a piece of work for a senior manager, asked for an update and was told that she had told the person not to do it. The work has to be submitted tomorrow- I called her and asked what had happened. She simply said she didnt think it was necessary. I was quite short with her saying I was disappointed that she hadn't even consulted or informed me. I feel bad but we can't go on like this-it's exhausting. Am sure she's not happy either - I have tried to have this conversation with her (how can we work better together, how I respect her, want it to work etc) but just don't seem able to get though. I feel I not being heard. Any suggestions for how I can managed the situation better? Thank you.

Have you tried pointing out where “insubordination” features in the disciplinary policy?

I had commissioned a piece of work for a senior manager, asked for an update and was told that she had told the person not to do it. The work has to be submitted tomorrow- I called her and asked what had happened. She simply said she didnt think it was necessary. I was quite short with her saying I was disappointed that she hadn't even consulted or informed me.

That would get her on at least the first stage of the disciplinary process where I am. You are the manager - you decide what work is necessary for your team to do. It doesn’t mean the team can’t challenge you, or that you shouldn’t listen to pushback. But ultimately it’s for you to say what work happens, not your team member.

I think she is just very passionate/ over invested and struggles to see the bigger picture. I have tried explaining to her what I am trying to achieve and why. its just everything feels like such hard work with her - I do admire her , recognise all the hard work she does but things need to change and I find the thought of a daily battle exhausting. Just dont know how to appeal to her.

I was expecting you to say you totally lost your rag. Not to say you told her you were disappointed she hadn’t run it passed you. You need to read the riot act. It’s totally unacceptable that she makes those sorts of decisions full stop. It sounds like you’ve been quite flaky tbh. She telling in no uncertain terms that if you tell her to do something, she does it. If she decides not to, regardless of the reason, you will put her on a stage 1 disciplinary. Tell her first thing tomorrow, and that this is an informal warnign, and that you expect the work to be done by the end of the day.

You sound a bit scared of her.

The thing is, if they’ve had to bring a new person in to “help manage performance” then there’s a problem isn’t there? I’m willing to bet that she is either part of of the whole problem.

I think possibly the only thing to do here is stop tiptoeing around and “admiring” her and start telling her straight that no matter she is at her job her behaviour is taking her swiftly towards disciplinary.

FFS you don’t need to appeal to her. Why are you using that sort of language? You’re her manager, not her career coach.

Agree with others you need to read her the riot act. You've asked her to do a piece of work and she's not done it. Performance review time. You need to toughen up.

I've managed several people like this. You need to get tough and act like a leader. The longer you leave it and act as if you're in awe of her the worse it'll get.

You've been asked to improve performance. She's the problem. Deal with her.

Why are you doing all of this? You’re her manager right? Just manage her. Sometimes, it really is just a matter of telling someone what to do.

Stop framing it as a discussion but give her a clear list of tasks with a timeline. If she decides for whatever reason not to do them start to performance manage.

I’m a senior manager in civil service & I get it. You don’t want to start a bun fight, but you have inherited a shitty team ie people who think they’re above reproach as previous managers never pulled them up about these things, so it’s awkward to navigate etc. you may very well get a grievance your way if you do tackle things.

However you’ve been handling this wrong imo

First thing is get your manager on side and gauge their opinion on things. If they have never pulled up your colleague, who has likely been like this before you were in post, can you really trust your manager will back you if you start performance management? If they seem supportive of your direct report, back off imo. You’re only in a temporary post…

Second thing is to be strategic about what you put in writing and what you don’t. Put your requests for work & updates in an email so there’s nowhere for her to hide. Get the excuses in an email. Don’t let her get away with saying insubordinate things over the phone. Equally you might want to take the approach of being soft over the phone and more clinical in emails, to ease any tension whilst protecting yourself.

Also it’s highly likely she’s jealous of your job and thinks the role should be hers, so it’s possible that nothing you do will get her on your side especially as it’s a temporary post. You can maybe just direct conversations with her to EOIs or TDA opportunities, things that will help her get promoted.

I would get urgent advice from HR, because I think you’re going to have to start managing towards disciplinary proceedings (the continuing failure to address her insubordination to date means they can’t start now) & you need to ensure you are ticking every box & creating the necessary paper trail. Do you have a HR person allocated to advise your area? That would be my first port of call.

I would also urgently look for management training in disciplinary procedure! Because you are clearly not able to deal with blatant attempts to undermine you in front of other team members (working on other documents in meetings, cancelling your instructions, wow). Not suggesting this is your fault- you need more information about procedures in your area.

As others have said you need to put a lid your admiration for this person! Impossible to guess what is motivating this behaviour - I strongly suspect resentment of your temporary role - but it must be having a real effect on the wider team & is an aspect of the shortcomings you were put in place to deal with. She’s not an asset, she’s a liability to the team & needs to be dealt with as such. Appeals to her better nature are not going to help!

I've been asked to temporarily manage a team - to help raise their performance.

+1 on what 657904I said.

You need a very frank and open discussion with your manager on what your manager sees as having created the poor performance and how wide a scope you have for getting the team sorted.

And that can boil down to what process your manager will support if removing her from the team.

So promoted or moved sideways or sacked or PIPed into shape all need to be discussed.

And once agreed you need to document everything and pull in HR as needed.

So she has given you a wedge to work with.
You needed to be in a position to be able to explain she is the one taking instructions you are the one giving them and that failure to understand that role construct is not acceptable and a miss or near miss of a deadline is perfect.

There are clearly entrenched problems in the team and you have been brought in to sort it.

So sort it.

You cannot pussyfoot around someone like this and you have already tried all the reasonable collegiate strategies. The example of stopping the work is blatant insubordination and you need to start the performance process. Either it will give her a massive kick up the arse and she will sort herself out or she will flounce.

Sounds like the rest of the team and the previous manager may have been weak which has let her rule the roost. You cannot be weak and must also be looking to skill up and empower the rest of the team to not be cowed and be able to shine in their roles.

You've tried the softly softly approach and it's not worked. Sit her down and remind her of everything you've said previously them remind her that you are the manager and she must do as you ask - unless it's a completely unreasonable request - any more undermining you and not completing tasks will unfortunately result in things becoming more formal - which you do not want to happen. The ball is in her court then.