How do I keep them from shooting the messenger?
May 2, 2018 1:22 AM Subscribe
Three months ago I got a new job with a big promotion. However, probably predictably, I took over an organisation thought to be sound, but which is literally falling apart around my ears. I've had three solid months of bad news I needed to deliver and it seems like the end is not yet in sight. They know, intellectually, that this is not my fault-- but they're starting to look at me like Danger-Prone Daphne. How can I turn this around? Bonus: cultural differences and sexism.
I am an experienced female executive. I was recently hired into my first general management role in a smallish company in my niche industry. The company is part of a larger holding. The company had been performing well, but there were worrying signs which they wanted me to explore. The manager who left is well liked, and has been promoted manage a bigger company.
On day 2 (literally), I discovered a major gap in competence which had meant Widget X planning and forecasting was *way* off. In my field, Widget X has huge consequences. Planning and forecasting Widget X is a large part of what we do as an organisation. This is pretty much the worst thing I could find in my field under the hood of a company.
I have spent the last three months explaining Widget X to my stakeholders and correcting the planning. It is a little bit abstract as a problem (though the consequences are not) and requires some degree of knowledge about my industry to fully understand. I am sure that only 2/3 of my stakeholders understand the issue. This is bad, because they surely understand the consequences.
I will spend the rest of 2019 dealing with the fallout of this error. Cleaning up the competence gap will take even longer.
The holding is nearly entirely male and very old fashioned, and I know that hiring me in the first place was seen as "risky". There are both peers and stakeholders who explain things to me like I'm just out of school. I knew this was the case when I took the job, but it's starting to give me rage fits and is doing nothing for my confidence in an already difficult situation. I am the only women in this kind of role at my level.
I am lucky since the manager who I replaced has been supportive, and freely admits his role in creating the mess and has publicly praised me for discovering it and taking the right steps to clean it up.
With my senior management, I find I spend all my time being asked to explain. Just when I think it is understood and put to bed, there is suddenly another shocked stakeholder and I need to make another powerpoint deck to explain to everyone all over again.
I think I might be being too accurate, and not reassuring enough. Communication is one of my key skills, but it's failing me now.
Oh, and I'm American and all of my stakeholders are either British or Australian. I'm pretty sure this isn't helping. I take things too literally, and miss cultural cues.
I know I can steer the business around, I also know I have taken the right actions to fix the problems. But how can I learn to speak British male in a way which will reassure the company?
Quitting is certainly an option, and I can probably find another job but for the sake of my career I would like to hang in there for two years. It would not look great to leave before the end of year one. And hey! maybe I won't even get a chance to quit! Wouldn't that be peachy? I *knew* this would be a difficult assignment because of the company culture, but right now it feels pretty close to impossible.
I'm looking for suggestions how to communicate to a company full of British male general managers and accountants given that I'm coming in as a new American female industry specialist. Again, HR is not an option or even remotely helpful. So I am-- I cannot believe I am writing this-- looking for help with Leaning In in this kind of situation so I can make myself understood. Any advice?
I am an experienced female executive. I was recently hired into my first general management role in a smallish company in my niche industry. The company is part of a larger holding. The company had been performing well, but there were worrying signs which they wanted me to explore. The manager who left is well liked, and has been promoted manage a bigger company.
On day 2 (literally), I discovered a major gap in competence which had meant Widget X planning and forecasting was *way* off. In my field, Widget X has huge consequences. Planning and forecasting Widget X is a large part of what we do as an organisation. This is pretty much the worst thing I could find in my field under the hood of a company.
I have spent the last three months explaining Widget X to my stakeholders and correcting the planning. It is a little bit abstract as a problem (though the consequences are not) and requires some degree of knowledge about my industry to fully understand. I am sure that only 2/3 of my stakeholders understand the issue. This is bad, because they surely understand the consequences.
I will spend the rest of 2019 dealing with the fallout of this error. Cleaning up the competence gap will take even longer.
The holding is nearly entirely male and very old fashioned, and I know that hiring me in the first place was seen as "risky". There are both peers and stakeholders who explain things to me like I'm just out of school. I knew this was the case when I took the job, but it's starting to give me rage fits and is doing nothing for my confidence in an already difficult situation. I am the only women in this kind of role at my level.
I am lucky since the manager who I replaced has been supportive, and freely admits his role in creating the mess and has publicly praised me for discovering it and taking the right steps to clean it up.
With my senior management, I find I spend all my time being asked to explain. Just when I think it is understood and put to bed, there is suddenly another shocked stakeholder and I need to make another powerpoint deck to explain to everyone all over again.
I think I might be being too accurate, and not reassuring enough. Communication is one of my key skills, but it's failing me now.
Oh, and I'm American and all of my stakeholders are either British or Australian. I'm pretty sure this isn't helping. I take things too literally, and miss cultural cues.
I know I can steer the business around, I also know I have taken the right actions to fix the problems. But how can I learn to speak British male in a way which will reassure the company?
Quitting is certainly an option, and I can probably find another job but for the sake of my career I would like to hang in there for two years. It would not look great to leave before the end of year one. And hey! maybe I won't even get a chance to quit! Wouldn't that be peachy? I *knew* this would be a difficult assignment because of the company culture, but right now it feels pretty close to impossible.
I'm looking for suggestions how to communicate to a company full of British male general managers and accountants given that I'm coming in as a new American female industry specialist. Again, HR is not an option or even remotely helpful. So I am-- I cannot believe I am writing this-- looking for help with Leaning In in this kind of situation so I can make myself understood. Any advice?
There's a certain type of older British man who's comfortable at giving the impression of suave & worldly competence, but who has exactly zero idea about what's really going on. His career progression is based on no-one calling him out, which he's largely got away with because the others (i.e. a bunch of other older British men) are in the same boat. They've all recruited & promoted each other, and they're good at closing ranks. Think: middle-ranking Tory backbencher.
So, you're a potential threat to those guys as you obviously know. They've all stood by & watched while your predecessor let Widget X get totally out of hand, so they know they're implicated. I would guess that they're repeatedly asking you to explain very precisely what's going on because it buys them time, and maybe just on the off-chance that they can catch you out on some detail.
Cultural difference might actually be somewhat on your side here. If another one of that whole bunch had got your job at this point, I would bet that he'd be smoothing egos and making very sure not to upset anyone with bad news, because he's trying hard to join their old boys' club, while Widget X runs further & further off the rails. My guess is that whoever appointed you knew this - they needed someone from outside that conservative culture, because that culture is part of their whole problem.
So I would say
1. keep being honest and meticulous and competent and direct, because that's exactly what they need from you right now
2. be reassuring that between the whole team you've got this, it's totally fixable, it will take [time period] and then you're all set, etc etc
3. maybe try to peel off a couple of the more clued-up stakeholders and brief them one-on-one, with the tacit expectation that they can cover for you a bit when they're all doing their inevitable bellyaching about you behind your back, which of course they are doing the whole time
4. find some random good-news thing to throw in as a sweetener, so they've got something to feel good about
5. keep your options open because it's always good to have plan B - if this all goes to crap and you get the blame, you've actually got a great story to tell at your next interview about why it didn't come off
Good luck.
posted by rd45 at 3:04 AM on May 2, 2018 [24 favorites]
So, you're a potential threat to those guys as you obviously know. They've all stood by & watched while your predecessor let Widget X get totally out of hand, so they know they're implicated. I would guess that they're repeatedly asking you to explain very precisely what's going on because it buys them time, and maybe just on the off-chance that they can catch you out on some detail.
Cultural difference might actually be somewhat on your side here. If another one of that whole bunch had got your job at this point, I would bet that he'd be smoothing egos and making very sure not to upset anyone with bad news, because he's trying hard to join their old boys' club, while Widget X runs further & further off the rails. My guess is that whoever appointed you knew this - they needed someone from outside that conservative culture, because that culture is part of their whole problem.
So I would say
1. keep being honest and meticulous and competent and direct, because that's exactly what they need from you right now
2. be reassuring that between the whole team you've got this, it's totally fixable, it will take [time period] and then you're all set, etc etc
3. maybe try to peel off a couple of the more clued-up stakeholders and brief them one-on-one, with the tacit expectation that they can cover for you a bit when they're all doing their inevitable bellyaching about you behind your back, which of course they are doing the whole time
4. find some random good-news thing to throw in as a sweetener, so they've got something to feel good about
5. keep your options open because it's always good to have plan B - if this all goes to crap and you get the blame, you've actually got a great story to tell at your next interview about why it didn't come off
Good luck.
posted by rd45 at 3:04 AM on May 2, 2018 [24 favorites]
The thing I've found in my time in management is - white male senior management and stakeholders (several of mine have been British, but I'm hesitant to paint with too broad a brush) really don't care about the problems or the root causes. They care about you having a solution to the problem, executing on it, and preserving their reputation as senior managers.
So - in my experience, you may need to simplify the root cause part, highlight how you're now on the right track (include metrics to show how you're getting closer, even specious ones) and start to turn the comms over to what you're going to do when widget X is back on track. At this point, your comms on the issue should be simplified to something like "we found a major error, have corrected it, and are on the right course to solving the problem permanently by the end of 2019."
In the meantime, look for quick wins and other things that could be improved at the margins that would've been part of your focus if widget X had been on track. It's going to be hard to drive the conversations with stakeholders to more fruitful areas for you if the only thing you're doing is working on widget X.
I will spend the rest of 2019 dealing with the fallout of this error. Cleaning up the competence gap will take even longer.
I don't know if this is due to to the vagueries of making an anonymous post or this is a core part of your pitch but if your issue is competence and planning for widget X, and widget X planning is key to your industry, then presumably there are people other than you who can do this in your industry. I think as a stakeholder, I would have a very difficult time understanding why it's going to take 17+ months to correct a competency gap in a core area of your business when there are people out there you can hire to do this. If that means a restructuring or additional resources added to your team to allow for it, I would consider pitching this as a way to speed up this because that timeline is way, way too long.
posted by notorious medium at 3:19 AM on May 2, 2018 [14 favorites]
So - in my experience, you may need to simplify the root cause part, highlight how you're now on the right track (include metrics to show how you're getting closer, even specious ones) and start to turn the comms over to what you're going to do when widget X is back on track. At this point, your comms on the issue should be simplified to something like "we found a major error, have corrected it, and are on the right course to solving the problem permanently by the end of 2019."
In the meantime, look for quick wins and other things that could be improved at the margins that would've been part of your focus if widget X had been on track. It's going to be hard to drive the conversations with stakeholders to more fruitful areas for you if the only thing you're doing is working on widget X.
I will spend the rest of 2019 dealing with the fallout of this error. Cleaning up the competence gap will take even longer.
I don't know if this is due to to the vagueries of making an anonymous post or this is a core part of your pitch but if your issue is competence and planning for widget X, and widget X planning is key to your industry, then presumably there are people other than you who can do this in your industry. I think as a stakeholder, I would have a very difficult time understanding why it's going to take 17+ months to correct a competency gap in a core area of your business when there are people out there you can hire to do this. If that means a restructuring or additional resources added to your team to allow for it, I would consider pitching this as a way to speed up this because that timeline is way, way too long.
posted by notorious medium at 3:19 AM on May 2, 2018 [14 favorites]
A lot of good advice above. I wouldn't, however, I would speak to others one on one as little as humanly possible- information and becomes too tangled up. Speaking to small or larger groups helps ensure accountability. It's too easy for people to claim forgetfulness or contradictory information after a one on one. I would spend less time trying to smooth things over and making people feel good and more time on rectifying problems, particularly where there seems to be a bottleneck and/or an immediate solution. Playing nice in order to appease egos as a woman manager does not reap many rewards in my experience. It may look like stroking egos is helpful on the surface but it knocks down credibility, especially among older men. Consistency and confidence is key here, no backpedaling in order to appease complainers.
posted by waving at 6:24 AM on May 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by waving at 6:24 AM on May 2, 2018 [7 favorites]
I agree with a lot of the advice above, but my advice is also for you personally. In my career I saw so many times an Old Boys' Club brought in a woman, sometimes through a legitimate champion in the club and sometimes much more darkly deliberately, to clean up a mess, kind of pin it on her as the messenger, and then created an exit for her. I doubt there's a playbook out there but it seems to be a thing. So do not spend all your energy solely on this position; keep your networking fresh in case you do end up exiting for one reason or another.
Then focus on solutions and communicate the solutions over and over, not just the "how did this happen?" "As you may recall, this happened due to [error in forecasting] in [date]. However, to address this, this week XYZ is happening, with ABC intended result."
posted by warriorqueen at 7:41 AM on May 2, 2018 [15 favorites]
Then focus on solutions and communicate the solutions over and over, not just the "how did this happen?" "As you may recall, this happened due to [error in forecasting] in [date]. However, to address this, this week XYZ is happening, with ABC intended result."
posted by warriorqueen at 7:41 AM on May 2, 2018 [15 favorites]
To follow on with the excellent insight and advice above, the Glass Cliff is a thing and I suspect you are on it. That doesn't mean you can't prevail but I think it's important to realize the playing field that you have been placed on and, while doing your best, also make sure that you are looking out for yourself primarily. Strangely, I find that the more you look out for yourself, the more people seem to respect you as long as you do it ethically. Women tend to run themselves flat in heroic efforts and then find that the only thing they get for it is someone quietly shoveling your carcass off to the side while they insert some man to bring back the status quo.
I think it would be interesting to you to look at the possibility of hiring an executive coach while you sort through this mess. It's important, I think, to find a guide. Women aren't taught these boys club things and, frankly, women mostly find boys club rules stupid and counterproductive. So you want to know how to navigate, succeed and drive your career forward without driving yourself into the ground.
posted by amanda at 7:47 AM on May 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
I think it would be interesting to you to look at the possibility of hiring an executive coach while you sort through this mess. It's important, I think, to find a guide. Women aren't taught these boys club things and, frankly, women mostly find boys club rules stupid and counterproductive. So you want to know how to navigate, succeed and drive your career forward without driving yourself into the ground.
posted by amanda at 7:47 AM on May 2, 2018 [11 favorites]
From the wikipedia article I linked above, this feels like it describes your situation fairly well. It's nice that the promoted guy is sympathetic and all but...come on.
"Haslam has said that women executives are likelier than men to accept glass cliff positions because they do not have access to the high-quality information and support that would ordinarily warn executives away."
It's a reference to this article about Mary Barra which is a good read, too, as it gives some examples of successfully navigating a Glass Cliff.
posted by amanda at 7:54 AM on May 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
"Haslam has said that women executives are likelier than men to accept glass cliff positions because they do not have access to the high-quality information and support that would ordinarily warn executives away."
It's a reference to this article about Mary Barra which is a good read, too, as it gives some examples of successfully navigating a Glass Cliff.
posted by amanda at 7:54 AM on May 2, 2018 [3 favorites]
"...how can I learn to speak British male in a way which will reassure the company?"
Don't try. Find the hidden strengths in American woman, tweaked. For help, watch W1A and try to figure out how to become Siobhan. This show is applicable to all worktalknightmare situations I've ever been in. I've never actually tried to use any of their insane (and insanely useful) talkarounds, but imagining that I could one day pop out with one of them relieves workstress like nothing else.
posted by Don Pepino at 9:43 AM on May 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Don't try. Find the hidden strengths in American woman, tweaked. For help, watch W1A and try to figure out how to become Siobhan. This show is applicable to all worktalknightmare situations I've ever been in. I've never actually tried to use any of their insane (and insanely useful) talkarounds, but imagining that I could one day pop out with one of them relieves workstress like nothing else.
posted by Don Pepino at 9:43 AM on May 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Great advice throughout this thread, I just want to specifically second waving's take -- address them in groups, and avoid the one-on-one hand-holding they seek but will not ultimately respect. Your support staff needs to be a buffer to reduce this sort of access. Assistants can cheerily send the pertinent slide from the last deck, to answer the question that's already been answered. You're way too busy righting the company, go-getting American that you are. (You're also keeping your contacts fresh and reviewing new opportunities, in case you were brought in as a scapegoat.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:13 PM on May 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 12:13 PM on May 2, 2018 [4 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
You're right that communication styles are pretty different – can you send me a MeMail? On both sides of the pond, pride is important, don't want to give easily-misunderstood advice here. I can't speak as much to Australian communication, though in business it tends to be closer to the UK than to the US. I'm an American woman who's lived in France for 20 years, currently in upper management and working with teams in Paris and London.
posted by fraula at 1:36 AM on May 2, 2018 [4 favorites]