Is there anything I can do?

Submitted by Jacqueline Matuza
in
Management and Leadership

 Hi everyone,

  I've been listening to MT for a bit now and really find the information helpful. I've tried to implement a lot of the techniques. Some things I am better at than others....but I'm trying to keep working on areas of weakness. I have been in a social service management position for just over a year (my first management position). A few weeks ago I found out that basically all of the staff of our department of 7 hate my boss - our Director - and I don't mean typical boss griping, they really don't think he has any redeeming qualities as a manager. Their complaints are the same as mine, but being in this position I have never shared my feelings about him with them.  Later that same week, while at our admin office, it became clear that staff in another department know to just come to me instead of him when they need something because I will follow through, give accurate information, and be timely. These two things would be bad enough but this past week he and I were having a disagreement over something and he said "that's why I'm considered such a good manager". I realized at that point that he has absolutely no idea how he is being perceived. I know I can't give him feedback. Is there anything that I can do to make him aware of how his actions are being received? I already suggested 360 reviews to HR long ago but there's been no follow up or change on that front? I like my boss perfectly fine as a person and hate to see him so clueless. Again, for context, I work in social services so I would say the culture is quite different compared to corporate- or even other kinds of nonprofit -life. Social workers like to talk about feelings and be open and honest with each other, even when it would no doubt make Mark and Mike cringe. A good work environment is supposed to be part of the trade off for lower salaries.

Thanks

Jackie

Submitted by STEVENM on Monday October 8th, 2012 8:35 am

There are countless things you could do. The question is probably whether or not they're suicidal. :P 
I think the real problem here is the "Social Workers like..." aspect.  Ask yourself this.  If you were in social environment with friends wouldn't you consider it rude to talk behind someones back in a negative way?  I suspect you would.  This isn't openness and honesty.  Open and honest would be telling someone your concerns directly.  Obviously it's different in a work environment because of role power, but rules on respectfulness like that hold even in a work environment. While he may have disliked traits or habits, the problem in this scenario isn't his (at least until more information comes to light).  You seem to be in the situation of having to address destructive team behaviors. 
Social workers may like to do those things, but so do many corporate workers. It's still just gossip unless there's a serious situation (in which case you should be going somewhere other than your fellow workers), and it sounds like this isn't that time. You can't stop gossip, but you'd do well not to participate in it yourself and to give feedback about it.

Submitted by Jacqueline Matuza on Monday October 8th, 2012 9:03 am

I really appreciate that thoughtful response, I'd probably never have looked at it from the angle of the discussion/response being the actual problem. I definitely think after going through this once I will be better prepared to address it with the staff in the future.  
For additional context, and to play devil's advocate, I will add some details of the issues staff have with him: people perceive him as talking down to them, including our youth participants (I don't think this is his intention, but he just seems uncomfortable around people by nature); he will tell someone to do something, forget, and then become irate with them when they do it, asking why they would do such a thing; he will commit staff to activities that are not possible without consulting them, because he is too far removed from the work to understand what it will actually take (I suspect this is a common boss issue). I suppose my additional concern is that even if I am able to give feedback on the gossiping, and can stop it, the reality is his behavior and relationship with the staff are absolutely impacting morale (which is already at a low due to recent layoffs and the bad way in which they were handled by the agency) which affects the group dynamic and the work that is produced. 
Even after saying all of that though, I think I still agree with you that the only thing to be done is to focus on my staff, and how they respond.  Perhaps with adjusting feedback on future gossip as well as supporting feedback when they respond well to one of his disliked behaviors I can bring about some improvement for them at least.
Thanks very much :)

Submitted by STEVENM on Monday October 8th, 2012 9:39 am

There are other things you could do to ease the pain for everyone... getting some solid reporting in place so that your directs are speaking through you about the progress on those tasks he's assigned might help. As you talk about it this sounds like some of the pains might be addressed here as well:
http://www.manager-tools.com/2009/11/my-boss-skips-me