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...
Kimberly McCoyProject Manager| TekSystems - ContractorZanesville, Oh, United States
Here is my personal feedback. One thing to remember is if you are having issues with your manager, it may be best to sit down with him/her and explain the situation to them and look for ways that the process can be approved.
1. Your manager misinterprets information - is there a reason he is misinterpreting this? Is the information clear in the documentation provided for someone outside the project?
2. He calls meetings of your team - Can you schedule time with him to discuss the report/information prior to it getting to this point? With him not understanding the information, it may be best to review this in person.
3. He often says he is getting conflicting messages. - Can you ask who he is getting this conflict information from? Maybe it would be best that these people sit down with you and your manager to review and ensure communication is being sent correctly to all parties, and not being withheld.
4. Meetings Disrupted and Off Agenda - Since these are your meetings, although he is your manager, let him know that this is not on the agenda, and we can either table it for now or follow up outside this meeting. Of course, be polite about it, but let him know the delays this would cause to this meeting. The other thing you could do, if not done already, is reach out to him if he has anything he needs to discuss in the meeting to ensure it is added to the agenda and the appropriate time allowed to discuss.
The only advice I can give, and please take with a grain of salt, as you know your manager better, is be open and honest about the struggles with this kind of behavior. He may not know he is doing anything wrong, and unless someone speaks up about it, he may never know his disruption to progress. I know it is difficult to do this to someone above you, but if done politely and professionally, it could mean great outcomes. Saving Changes...
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.
All the best with your proposal, Bruce. Saving Changes...
I suggest that you meeting with him openly. and discuss all issues. maybe there is misunderstanding between both of you. you need to speak the same language. Set your ground-roles. Saving Changes...
I had read similar scenario from a book about habit, that story tells a CEO whose behavior is so bad that staffs don't like to work with the CEO. But one of the staff always focus on what he can do in the work area, and keep in a positive way. After a period, the CEO trust him much more than others, and sometimes even asks his opinion for some high level strategy before make decision. The situation you have, it happened in my work area as well, my manager is not expert in my area, and even can not understand what I am doing. To adapt that, the first thing I did was to train her or share her relevant knowledge in meetings, chats, during lunch, whatever once there is a chance. It worked for me to make me and my boss to understand each other more. There you mention sometimes the people prefer to contact you rather than your manager, it's good, but somehow it's area to improve as well. As managers need to make sure everything under his/her responsibility can be controlled. It's very important to know what is happening within the team. Who was contacted out of the team, what was happening, what was the impacting. What I suggest here, even a work/task which don't need the boss to take action, it's much better to let the manager knows what is the content, the status, the result and the lesson learn. Hope these helps! Have good days! Saving Changes...
I agree with quite a few of these. What helps sometimes is having the 1-1 conversation (figure out the right timing for this) with my manager. Clearly chalking out the agenda to be achieved, getting to an agreement on way forward will be the key. Many a times, I was not able to understand the pressures my manager undergoes - and not everyone is mature. And finally, requesting for such 1-1s monthly would help to ensure that actions and agreements agreed are in place and get the much deserved attention.
If this does not work, I would suggest a SKIP meeting - either with the manager's boss or HR. This does need some attention if the above things are failing and better to get the next levels to help address the concern. Saving Changes...
