Intermittent Manager
April 26, 2015 9:24 PM Subscribe
I'm finding myself intermittently managing the work of a rotating carousel of people on an ad-hoc informal basis. Help?
I've read lots of previous threads about what makes a good manager, and I've definitely learned a lot from them. My position is slightly different, though, in that I am finding myself managing people's work, but not the people (if that makes sense).
I am a senior level staff person in a creative field, one level below the lowest level managers. My day to day job is essentially that I am the project manager and the staff for my small projects, with the oversight of my boss who is the official project manager. Normally the projects are small enough that I do all the work myself. However. For the last several months I have been working on a double-loaded new-concept project for an indecisive client. This has generated so much extra work and such tight deadlines that I keep being handed other staff to help me get all the work done. I am still the junior PM on the project and therefore am resonsible for executing all the deliverables. Which means I have to delegate work I would normally do myself, and then manage these people and their work to make sure it gets done, and done correctly.
The problem is that I get people helping me for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks and I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the best way to a) get them up to speed b) what work I can delegate and which work I need to do myself and c) how often I need to be communicating with them. I'm also having difficulty setting expectations of the work I want to get back from them - the standards for this project are somewhat more stringent than what most people in my company work on normally, and I often feel like I'm coming across as nit-picky or being overly demanding.
So, lots of this stuff I think I could work through if these were people I was working with longer term and could set expectations and get them involved in the project so they could have more ownership... but I only get them for at most a few weeks at a time. And many of them are actually my peers, but I'm still on the hook for their work, and it needs to be right. I don't want to be condescenting or overstep with giving direction, but I'm also frustrated at what seems like lack of urgency, lack of understanding of the project and sort of general laziness in executing what I ask them to do. Since this has been consistent across several of the people I've worked with, I'm pretty sure the problem is me. I definitely know that I'm not doing a good job always communicating my expections, and I often find myself giving up by then end and doing frantic last minute edits because I just can't trust things will be done correctly.
Help? How do you manage work when you are not actually someone's manager and you're only getting people for short periods of time?
I've read lots of previous threads about what makes a good manager, and I've definitely learned a lot from them. My position is slightly different, though, in that I am finding myself managing people's work, but not the people (if that makes sense).
I am a senior level staff person in a creative field, one level below the lowest level managers. My day to day job is essentially that I am the project manager and the staff for my small projects, with the oversight of my boss who is the official project manager. Normally the projects are small enough that I do all the work myself. However. For the last several months I have been working on a double-loaded new-concept project for an indecisive client. This has generated so much extra work and such tight deadlines that I keep being handed other staff to help me get all the work done. I am still the junior PM on the project and therefore am resonsible for executing all the deliverables. Which means I have to delegate work I would normally do myself, and then manage these people and their work to make sure it gets done, and done correctly.
The problem is that I get people helping me for anywhere from a few days to a few weeks and I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the best way to a) get them up to speed b) what work I can delegate and which work I need to do myself and c) how often I need to be communicating with them. I'm also having difficulty setting expectations of the work I want to get back from them - the standards for this project are somewhat more stringent than what most people in my company work on normally, and I often feel like I'm coming across as nit-picky or being overly demanding.
So, lots of this stuff I think I could work through if these were people I was working with longer term and could set expectations and get them involved in the project so they could have more ownership... but I only get them for at most a few weeks at a time. And many of them are actually my peers, but I'm still on the hook for their work, and it needs to be right. I don't want to be condescenting or overstep with giving direction, but I'm also frustrated at what seems like lack of urgency, lack of understanding of the project and sort of general laziness in executing what I ask them to do. Since this has been consistent across several of the people I've worked with, I'm pretty sure the problem is me. I definitely know that I'm not doing a good job always communicating my expections, and I often find myself giving up by then end and doing frantic last minute edits because I just can't trust things will be done correctly.
Help? How do you manage work when you are not actually someone's manager and you're only getting people for short periods of time?
I think sometimes the fear of coming across demanding or the assumption that people will respond to a project the same way as you do can lead to being ambiguous up front. This is especially true when you aren't the actual boss of these people. What I would do is lay everything out up front and be as detailed and specific as possible. When you want to avoid looking nit-picky, blame it on the client.
"This client is very specific about what they are looking for, so here are the parameters they've passed along:
-Specific item that ensure work is done right
-Another specific item that prevents your co-worker from messing this up
-Specific deadline for when their piece of the work need to be sent back
(Let them know you can help with any questions and close with an appreciative and sincere thank you)"
I am an actual manager of the people I assign projects to, so you may choose to approach this slightly differently, but sometimes when I am assigning someone something but I am not sure if they are going to do it right (either because this person has had trouble following instructions before, or because it's difficult to explain), I will set a draft deadline before the final deadline. i.e. "Please send me the final draft by noon on Friday, but how about you send me what you've pulled together so far by end of day Wednesday so I can take a look and make sure we're on the same page?"
People have to do their jobs, and their jobs are to make sure your company get shits done, whether it's assigned by you or someone else. They know that, and so do their direct supervisors. If someone is dropping the ball and not helping, you can definitely move that up the chain. What might be easier, though, is you can loop their direct supervisor on your initial requests straight out the gate so the boss knows you've requested the work -- if the bosses don't respond to the email chain saying, "Mary is working on two other projects and can't help you," then that means the employee is on the hook to do the work. It also means if there are problems, the manager has the context to assess it and handle it. I am a manager and I always appreciate when someone lets me know they have asked one of my people to work on stuff, and I get annoyed when they don't tell me and I find out later. This is mostly because when I know they are working on other stuff, I won't give them extra work, but also because I like to make sure they do a good job, which reflects well on my team as a whole. (Another reason, though, is I hate when people pass off stupid things to my people that they shouldn't really be doing.)
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:04 AM on April 27, 2015
"This client is very specific about what they are looking for, so here are the parameters they've passed along:
-Specific item that ensure work is done right
-Another specific item that prevents your co-worker from messing this up
-Specific deadline for when their piece of the work need to be sent back
(Let them know you can help with any questions and close with an appreciative and sincere thank you)"
I am an actual manager of the people I assign projects to, so you may choose to approach this slightly differently, but sometimes when I am assigning someone something but I am not sure if they are going to do it right (either because this person has had trouble following instructions before, or because it's difficult to explain), I will set a draft deadline before the final deadline. i.e. "Please send me the final draft by noon on Friday, but how about you send me what you've pulled together so far by end of day Wednesday so I can take a look and make sure we're on the same page?"
People have to do their jobs, and their jobs are to make sure your company get shits done, whether it's assigned by you or someone else. They know that, and so do their direct supervisors. If someone is dropping the ball and not helping, you can definitely move that up the chain. What might be easier, though, is you can loop their direct supervisor on your initial requests straight out the gate so the boss knows you've requested the work -- if the bosses don't respond to the email chain saying, "Mary is working on two other projects and can't help you," then that means the employee is on the hook to do the work. It also means if there are problems, the manager has the context to assess it and handle it. I am a manager and I always appreciate when someone lets me know they have asked one of my people to work on stuff, and I get annoyed when they don't tell me and I find out later. This is mostly because when I know they are working on other stuff, I won't give them extra work, but also because I like to make sure they do a good job, which reflects well on my team as a whole. (Another reason, though, is I hate when people pass off stupid things to my people that they shouldn't really be doing.)
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:04 AM on April 27, 2015
Response by poster: To be more clear, these people are specifically assigned to "help" me, so they and their bosses definitely know the score. My boss, however, is remote (unlike everyone else's boss here), so escalating up the chain results in bothering partners which is Not Done for this sort of thing. Both my managing partner and boss have made it fairly clear that they expect me to figure out what to do with these people. I've found this sort of ad hoc "helping" is really common as a staffing strategy across companies in my industry, but I've always had trouble with it both as a helper and a help-ee. Some of the people helping me are actually on my own small team so I don't want to throw them under the bus - would be serious bad juju.
In terms of the work qualitly I need it's a little hard to define. It's like I'm getting "Gap Outlet" quality work and I need "Nordstrom" level work - which is a nebulous difference, but definitely different. Conveying this difference is one of the things I'm struggling with. I get the "Outlet" level work and when I'm trying to explain what needs to change I get attitudes like "It's a t-shirt what's the difference?" back.
posted by annie o at 6:26 AM on April 27, 2015
In terms of the work qualitly I need it's a little hard to define. It's like I'm getting "Gap Outlet" quality work and I need "Nordstrom" level work - which is a nebulous difference, but definitely different. Conveying this difference is one of the things I'm struggling with. I get the "Outlet" level work and when I'm trying to explain what needs to change I get attitudes like "It's a t-shirt what's the difference?" back.
posted by annie o at 6:26 AM on April 27, 2015
Sounds like you could use training and mentoring in project management. Talk to your bosses about sending you on a course.
Consider using a methodology such as kanban that (a) has daily stand ups (b) shows the full work queue to everyone (c) lets you publically put in new tasks for rework due to low quality (d) has team members demonstrate their work and celebrate success.
A lot of what you are describing sounds like inexperience as a project manager, combined with poor company culture. Get some training, know that issues like these get easier to handle as you build confidence, and hope for the best.
posted by crazycanuck at 7:07 AM on April 27, 2015
Consider using a methodology such as kanban that (a) has daily stand ups (b) shows the full work queue to everyone (c) lets you publically put in new tasks for rework due to low quality (d) has team members demonstrate their work and celebrate success.
A lot of what you are describing sounds like inexperience as a project manager, combined with poor company culture. Get some training, know that issues like these get easier to handle as you build confidence, and hope for the best.
posted by crazycanuck at 7:07 AM on April 27, 2015
I think some of the techniques of Agile project management might help you, even if you modify them a bit. Specifically: daily status touchpoints and breaking the project into teeny tiny tasks with really short due dates.
Even if you don't go fully Agile, those two techniques can help you get stuff done.
posted by CathyG at 7:13 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Even if you don't go fully Agile, those two techniques can help you get stuff done.
posted by CathyG at 7:13 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Sometimes, though, just the appearance of work getting done is sufficient for a certain client. I would assume under this scenario that it's the kind of client that your company doesn't mind losing or hopes goes away.
Also, when the quality is low, if you feel that you can't hold their feet to the fire then you certainly need to go up the chain. "Hey, Mr. X just gave me his work to review, I'm not sure it meets the expectations, can you help me review this and discuss with him if his is off the mark?"
posted by amanda at 10:03 PM on April 26, 2015