Bruce HoldingSenior Project/Program Manager| Career BreakAuckland, New Zealand
My Manager has little Project Management experience or insight into best PM practise. The environment is non-PM stuctured.
My manager has lately been misinterpreting information he is being given and reacts by calling meetings with my project team, with no notice at times, to discuss if on track. I have already received team feedback and progress against project baselines and checked their level of team satisfaction. This has been provided to my manager who is disregarding it as being correct. He often says he is getting conflicting messages. But I have noticed he has not been interpreting information provided in the right way, which is sometimes due to not fully reading it or interrupting.
At my meetings where I always provide notice of the meeting; a purpose and an agenda. He regularly goes off agenda if he attends my meetings, which is disruptive and has caused 1 meeting to not deliver its full agenda due to running out of time. I run controlled & effective meetings when he is not there.
He is not following best meeting protocol that enables effective meetings. Ie. Arrives late, interrupts the person talking including the person running the meeting. He discusses his own agendas which have not been planned for not and often outside of the purpose for the meeting. Hw takes phone calls in meetings (it's my boss, I better take it - let him wait) meaning the attendees either wait for him (can be 5+ minutes x 6 people = 1/2 hour+ down time), or have to recap for him when he's back.
HE Calls meetings wutb teams on the spot at no notice, sends meeting invites with no meeting purpose or agenda, and the headings are non-descriptive. He has also done this with clients owned meetings, including inviting himself without 1st checking with the client that this is ok which has surprised the client when he turns up announced.
Although he is fully acknowledging how well I do my job he's not supporting me best, or showing confidence of that to me or my team due to his behaviour. He is not allowing me to run my meetings on topic or effectively, he is undermining the authority I am given as project manager, he is not having faith in what he's being told and not supporting escalations when I do raise them.
He is not interpreting information correctly and is even running meetings that should be held by someone else who is not at the meeting as he wasn't invited and he is providing inaccurate information at the meetungs, which is causes frustration, interruption and unecessary work.
I am a seasoned project manager and I do deliver. My team and my clients show faith in me and ask for me. Client executives will phone me directly rather than phone my manager. I need to salvage things when my manager behaves badly and which is extra and sometimes unpleasant especially when a client is impacted.
I now need to discuss this with him. I'm hearing his team talking poorly about his behaviour. He is however a good guy with genuine good intentions, but he's off track right now.
I would value any input to discussions you have had wuth a manager in situations like this, where a positive outcome and an improved relationship with your manager and his behaviour has been the result. What did you do and what was your approach to achieve that? Thanks for all and any feedback. Saving Changes...
Malhar VishwarupeAssociate Manager| Harsco India Services Pvt LtdHyderabad, Telangana, India
First you should discuss this with your manager face to face. It actually provides him opportunity to rectify his mistakes and become a good manager. If he still continue his behavior, discuss it with his manager. Discussing with senior management solves the issue most of the times. If still the things continue as it is, its time to provide feedback to your manager and senior management again.
If the things are not changed, its time to move on for the sake of your career.
First you should discuss this with your manager face to face. It actually provides him opportunity to rectify his mistakes and become a good manager. If he still continue his behavior, discuss it with his manager. Discussing with senior management solves the issue most of the times. If still the things continue as it is, its time to provide feedback to your manager and senior management again.
If the things are not changed, its time to move on for the sake of your career.
I second that. Saving Changes...
Warren NashPM/PMO Position & SAP Architect| FreelancePudong, Shanghai, China, Mainland
OK. Maybe difficult but think from his angle first, ask yourself why is he doing it this way. My opinion is to not confront him directly, work on him/her is different situations with "grace" and "style"..... fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee. I have been in the "exact" position previously and it was based on the Director accepting too many tasks and his boss using a more of a "storming Norman" attitude to people management and empowerment. I did not find this out until I was more engaging with my Director. Good luck!! Saving Changes...
Connect offline with your manager, understand gaps & set expectations. Schedule weekly 1x1 meetings till the time issue gets resolved or subdued; provide agenda before each meeting, and minutes after it concludes. Communication is always the right thing to do. Saving Changes...
Nilesh TrivediTechnical Project Program Management Consultant| EndavaSuwanee, Ga, United States
I believe you should gain more trust being a team member.
Have one-to-one meeting with your manager and see which area he has to help you. Highlight all grey areas and ask for remediation with current situation. Show your co-operation to grab few things in his basket to smoothening relationship.
If above efforts are not useful then try to challenge him with more than one solution to situation. Saving Changes...
Dharmesh GandhiCreative & Strategic Thinker-PMP-Project/Delivery Management-Anaytics| -Pune, Maharashtra, India
Have 1-to-1 meeting with your manager. Try to resolve if there is any conflict. If at all it does not work, escalate it to next level i.e. follow the right channel justifying your case. Exhibit confidence and be professional. This will surely bring resolution in your favor. Saving Changes...
Bruce HoldingSenior Project/Program Manager| Career BreakAuckland, New Zealand
WHAT HAPPENED
Firstly thank you for all your responses and great advice.
In case anyone's still listening & interested I'd like to give an update on where this ended up.
The reason why I hadn't responded is that shortly before my seeking your thoughts my I'd found out wife had cheated on me, which ended up with a long road to financial hardship recovery due to 11 months to achieve a settlement with her.
In June, soon after I posted my question, was the battle to get agreement with my lenders to hang with me so they didn’t take my home & rentals properties off me!
Then ... I ended up in hospital with heart failure. Yep! So hope you forgive that I disappeared. I wasn't meaning to be rude.
Back to the manager
When I returned to work a meeting was called by a key client’ with their senior management & key executive’s.
A few months earlier their executive sponsor phoned me & apart from other discussions said "I need you to hold our hand on this one as I trust you to look after our number one priority, which is to protect our business & to deliver on time. If you ever need support just phone me" This was a major project for them to re-platform, redesign, rebrand and deliver digital enhancement. The client is this country’s biggest energy company.
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A side note. The carpark building for this company is full of e-cars, e- bikes & even e-scooters many plugged in. They have a promotional vehicle. Get this. They even have an Electric Vehicle called Evie.
Evie's a 1957 Ford Fairlane convertible powered by a bus strength Siemens electric motor and 218 battery cells giving her a battery capacity of 50kWh. She can go 120km on a full charge & can fast charge in under 2 hours.
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At the meeting however I was not in a position to respond to a statement my manager made as ...... he is my manager & I'd be undermining him inappropriately in front of our key client's executives. It was not the place but I knew I had some salvage work to do. When he made the statement I saw the reaction of their business owner & could see she was upset.
You see the SoW & Charter provided all that was needed to keep this project within its controls. What he stated was a very clear showing that we'd gone off track & that happened while I was off on sick leave with my heart failure.
Fortunately I had the opportunity to pull their business owner aside and ask her "How are you feeling about how the projects going?"
She cried. Oh dear. As I had thought! You see, what we’d agreed & signed off on, wasn’t what was happening. So I said that I'd get it back on track and would discuss this with my Boss.
That was an opening to have a raw & honest conversation with him to a deeper level than I’d had prior. I'd already been doing most of what you had all made suggestions on.
So the face to face meetings, the ad-hoc catch ups, the meeting rules were always in place & he was always involved and endorsed any commercial document I'd drafted. Including this one that he took off track! Effectively he forgot the customer & directed the team down the wrong path.
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Sorry though. I’m against the suggestion of “skip meeting”. If this is a formal endorsed process at your work I’m shocked. It is not a prudent approach or best practice in management hierarchies. If there is an issue I certainly would not have a team meet with their manager’s manager. Appropriate hierarchy approach is for reporting lines to be adhered to. If a team member has a problem with my manager then they can either address that through me, directly with my manager (less preferred) or through their own direct line of reporting if it needs to escalate. No not a fan at all. This is not a soft skills approach.
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So due to the impact this time he took it on board. The conversation though I'd had a number of times. Knowing that it brought one of our favourite customers & strong advocate to tears was a bit of a shock to him. So he let me manage my projects from that point on & stopped disrupting meetings taking them off agenda.
That sunk in further when he started a sales pitch at a client sponsor meeting. Without physically acting it out, inside my head my hand slapped my forehead & I said to myself "Bosses name No! What are you doing man! This is his meeting & the timing is wrong that aside. I may have set it up but that was on his behalf. This is his agenda and he's driving it not me. It's not a sales meeting" Oh boy! He was quickly shot down by the sponsor.
Like I said in my original blurb, he is a good man. He just got excited sometimes. :-)
He’s since left our customer communications management business and doing something that still connects him to projects.
He now owns & runs a portable automated traffic light rental business. So he still has the Green Amber Red very close. I'm sure he misses us.
Paradigm shift? Aha yep! Saving Changes...
Bruce HoldingSenior Project/Program Manager| Career BreakAuckland, New Zealand
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Wow! Life has definitely thrown you a few curves. I'm glad you made it back to our community.
My five cents' worth of wisdom is that we have to make our bosses look good. I constantly ask my boss and myself "what can I do to make her life easier?"
Don't forget that your boss has a wider network of people than you do. She will be privy to things you have not heard.
Finally, you must understand that it is easier for you to change yourself than it is to change your boss. Tailor your processes and meetings to handle your boss' interventations. Control what you can control.
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1 reply by Bruce Holding
Jul 15, 2019 10:21 AM
Bruce Holding
...
Thanks for your comments.
Oh he was definitely made to look good. I steered it back on track with the help of an awesome team.The client won industry awards for what we delivered. My whole team got reward & recognition from our company. They also got acknowledgement from the clients business owner, sponsor & CEO. Oh. I also baked a couple of cakes one with the new brand on it. Yummy too.
Currently I'm drafting a proposal to extend their business with us.
Saving Changes...
Bruce HoldingSenior Project/Program Manager| Career BreakAuckland, New Zealand
Jul 15, 2019 10:01 AM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
...
Wow! Life has definitely thrown you a few curves. I'm glad you made it back to our community.
My five cents' worth of wisdom is that we have to make our bosses look good. I constantly ask my boss and myself "what can I do to make her life easier?"
Don't forget that your boss has a wider network of people than you do. She will be privy to things you have not heard.
Finally, you must understand that it is easier for you to change yourself than it is to change your boss. Tailor your processes and meetings to handle your boss' interventations. Control what you can control.
Thanks for your comments.
Oh he was definitely made to look good. I steered it back on track with the help of an awesome team.The client won industry awards for what we delivered. My whole team got reward & recognition from our company. They also got acknowledgement from the clients business owner, sponsor & CEO. Oh. I also baked a couple of cakes one with the new brand on it. Yummy too.
Currently I'm drafting a proposal to extend their business with us.
