manager overstepping authority manager overstepping authority

Reminds me of a quote from Sports Night: You didnt expect me to substitute your judgment for mine, did you?. I have to try and defend things and walk her through hours of discussion or context no, you dont, and by doing this you are validating her constant need to give feedback. Unless, of course, she is able to adjust her perspective. So its not so much she wants to be the boss but perhapsshe wants a different type of boss. Definitely going to be using this advice when it next occurs, with this individual or others on the team. If I see a path to move forward on the idea, then we will discuss that also. Its possibly because Jane never had the communication skills needed to give input without being presumptuous, unnecessary, and/or irritating. A. On the other hand, Ive been ignored when I pointed out obvious mistakes affecting our customers negatively, and my coworker was told to stay in their lane in the same situation. See also: I know the issue youre referring to, but because were bypassing the llama effect with whistles, quicksand actually isnt a factor.. I see how our customers interact with the systems our company designs, and the customers give me feedback about specific features they dont understand, and yet the UX team just says we tested that, it works. If it works, why are customers complaining to me? Mostly, in meetings I would say Okay, but this is what theyve come up with and there was a lot of thought put into this, so I suspect that your vision of whats on-brand is different than theirs and theyre the ones in charge of this. Its just a way to display, without emotion, who is Responsible for the work, who is Accountable, the people to be Consulted and who should be Informed. Good fences dont always make good neighbors. Larger groups have to operate differently than smaller groups. I dont care if they think Im wrong. If you know theyre out of control, tell them that you appreciate their input and will take it under consideration. Heard does not alway mean that something changes because of the feedback. Document, document, document! I cant imagine how frustrating it must be for all the other people in these meetings to have to listen to this all the time. Have a Board charter that specifies these relationships. Yes, this, so much. Or do I just have an opinion?. How do you deal with a manager who does this? Inspiring Accountability in the Workplace is available on Amazon as a paperback, eBook, and audiobook. In exchange, they will get respect back. Clarity will always save you time and angst. The box was more like a garbage can. update: how can I turn down training requests from my clients? If you have a chance to interact socially, might be something to chat about over lunch. Likewise they cant come into our department and tell us how to do our jobs.. I love working on things from start to finish, but I have a tendency to challenge certain things if I didnt get the full context. Critical thinking is a skill that is often see with suspicion instead of welcomed. The workplace is not a democracy. Don't be afraid to push back in meetings, questioning and clarifying roles and responsibilities, even if just for the record and to the benefit of others. Constantly questioning those decisions and criticizing without full information isnt great for our working environment, and its derailing our meetings. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. Its a direct and clear statement. Nothing seems to bring out the nasty in people like a feeling of authority and a copy of Roberts Rules of Order. Ugh, yes! When it comes to how to deal with employees who undermine your authority, be consistent in your messaging about the impact of their toxic behavior on the whole team. This person knows NOTHING about the technology in question, except that prices have effectively gone down over the ears and that refubs exist. When it comes to staff who undermine your authority, the employee may or may not be overt about it. This is great advice but I would like to present a counter perspective. I also trained myself to write my questions down and hold them till the end. Going forward, please refrain from sharing I know what I like ideas at meetings. Of course you want your staff to feel those things, and you should never shut down someones input or questions altogether. Have you thought about doing it this way for this reason? But it sounds like she just feels as if shes the the authority on everything, and always knows best. One of the signs often mentioned is having less work. Unfortunately, some of these gifted individuals many times become nuisances to other team members and managers. All rights reserved. I wasnt the coworker, but I was the one who wanted a break from the phone for a second and wanted to sink into the floor when my coworker got yelled at in front of the rest of the office. And other reasons. More often than not, this isnt being done intentionally. If you get pushback from her, one thing that helps me manage this for myself is, Do I have specific relevant information/expertise that may change how others see this? She outlined all the town hall meetings she spoke at, the letters she sent, the protests she was part of, etc. I started my current job about a year ago, I still dont have much to do, and I have a largely absentee boss who ignores emails. Its also probably true that Jane is bored in her role, and this may not be OPs problem to solve. Is there a chance youve just begun to filter out her input because shes become so annoying? It will make you seem like youre not concentrating on your work and will really, really, really alienate your colleagues. If you want to include because of A, B, C thats fine too. If you are reluctant on having difficult conversations, you can check out this post here on how to motivate yourself to have difficult conversations with employees. Maybe its just my industry and the sales teams Ive worked with :). Or as we say in my department, Lets take that offline and stay focused on this.. In your case, when they say this works I would respond with two things. Diplomatically question their authority. You are a valued employee, in your area.. And there are plenty of times where employees do not speak up but they all know that the light at the end of the tunnel IS an on-coming train, as opposed to daylight. Required fields are marked *. it feels like things get derailed since I have to try and defend things and walk her through hours of discussion or context she wasnt present for (and make it clear I support the decisions of the people who run those areas).. We did hear you and the answer is still no. Q. I am concerned about a restructuring that is going on, and it looks like Im going to be reporting to someone who doesnt know much about what I do. I am the OP thank you all for these amazing comments and Alison for answering my Q. I have never had such a large team before so Im learning so much about all these new dynamics, when so many people are working together.Since I posed the Q Ive had many convos with the individual in question but I have to admit I have shied away from being so direct as Alison and many of the commenters have suggested. Something as simple as saying, I thought this was a decision delegated to me. The power-mongering worker can get the bosss attention and, unfortunately, can be encouraged by senior managers who see a personal advantage to promoting the employees status. You dont have to poach people to get them to do their job. Sometimes its just the right thing to do as the company grows! It appears she feels that its okay to ignore what everyone else including the people who are actually involved have decided to do based on nothing, really. Most employees view their manager as too inexperienced, ineffective and incompetent. I dont want to say this is bad advice, and I dont want to panic you, but it certainly isnt necessarily always true. The piece went out and got some very bad public press. Perhaps she is wondering the same thing, and her lack of promotion combined with her diminishing influence is causing frustration and resentment. Ughhhhh yes to this. Staff meetings? And honestly, Id expect her to leave over it, as its effectively a demotion. Incito Executive and Leadership Development. Some people just dont want to manage, because they dont want to give up projects they really enjoy being stuck into, in return for overseeing it. You may feel eclipsed by this star of the show, and because hes the bosss chosen one, you may feel that you have few options. Instead of insisting that she doesnt have enough experience to comment on something, you could mention to her that you noted her interest and would she like to participate in a project to gain more experience? Thats cold, but Im just irked over what happens when SMEs and more junior staff arent held to reasonable soft skills standards, regardless of their desire to move into leadership positions. Sometimes employees try to placate the power monger so they can ride on the coattails of their success. Poor Jane helped grow the company and ow is being basically told to shut up and sit down bty a newbie. If your increasing interest in design is pulling you away from your highly-appreciated skills in budgeting, we can meet about exploring a long-term plan for a career shift, including making time for the requisite education and training. However, I have had multiple convos with Jane about where she wants to see her career go and how she wants her role to evolve. Of course, theres a time and a place to raise issues, and sometimes that time is never. But, Jane does NOT have the knowledge and experience to have an opinion that needs to be taken seriously. Were here to talk about X. VIDEO 04:00. Ugh. (and in meetings, I wait and see if anyone else will make my point so I dont have toI write my point down, and then I wait a little while). I have this problem in reverse. The big project that was eliciting a ton of this unwanted feedback is pretty much wrapped up, but I see some more on the horizon. Most people who do the so-called critical jobs are usually identified as the most valuable to managers and the company. Also, setting up one-on-one meetings with employees gives them exclusive time with their manager to work through issues that might not be addressed on a team level. If this isnt true any more, maybe the change needs to be more clearly articulated and some of these meetings need to be restructured. They've made a commitment to you and the team so prioritize tasks for them. Rather, this may be because there isnt clarity on everyones respective roles, its unclear as to what youre asking or your confidence as a leader hasnt been demonstrated to your senior leaders. When employees understand the why, it helps them put into perspective why that particular result isnt the most successful. Another possibility is that she wanted to stay in this role and didnt realize that would mean diminished scope. You dont want to come off defensive or threatened, but you do need to address it (since what you dont address, you approve). Walking her through stuff makes it seem like she does have a stake in it, or else why would you be spending this much time woth her on it? Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. Condo property manager overstepping her authority? Setting boundaries and establishing a standard helps to curb this behavior. I can be better about hewing to those roles, for sure. This woman, come to find out, has a 10 year long history of doing exactly this to every single backup shes had in that company. Personally, I cannot request 120 days off to go to everyones birthday party. This is a large family that thinks its still a small group of people. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. setting the expectation that there is a time for feedback and there is a time to move forward. I totally agree with the idea that employees whose input is not welcome should not be in meetings where their input will be ignored. It took a while but we collectively started to realize that almost every problem has a failure to communicate nested in it somewhere. If you want you and I can discuss Y later. Definitely dont let her (or anyone else) derail the meeting. If you have a whole department of Janes then you should probably take a real look at how you present these ideas and whether the department should have some input. I effectively ran five compliance programs when I first started at my new job. Thinking of Joining the Military as a Psychologist? Now these are great operators and valued workers but because they dont care about the bigger picture they are unwilling to make some small uncomfortable changes to their processes that would make a meaningful difference to their client. That happens! Shut it down, yes. Please don . Next move will be up to Jane, two things will happen: Jane pays a lot of lip service to her supposed belief in her colleagues abilities, which makes me wonder about her intentions, but the problem is that she doesnt understand that 1. perception is everything and 2. other people are not perceiving her walk as lining up with her talk. Sometimes we just have to trust other peoples ability to evaluate our potential accurately. But before you condone any belittling and bullying behaviors in the workplace, think about everyone else in the team, who can be just as talented if they are not trampled on. how do I get out of an active-shooter drill at my office? This is not staying in your lane. When someone is going on a tirade, I assume they wont listen to me. Coworkers like this dampen the dedication of others behind the scenes those doing the real work. They pursue a land grab and overstep your boundaries with no authority as they attempt to climb the corporate ladder. Thats great advice, as long as the only concern was Im not ready yet. Be quiet and concentrate on your own work, please. You can only have ONE. He or she presents a list of problems with your approach in their customary devastating barrage of anecdotes, facts, and organizational observations. The trick is to own your part in creating this situation and in how you can resolve it. I wasnt the only one who bailed at that point. She brought up several times that a particular piece of marketing collateral expressed something that was not at all in line with our companys style guide/voice and the marketing VP brushed her off and told her to stay in her lane, that the right stakeholders had been consulted, etc. Sometimes the so-called Jane might actually be picking up on real issues, or highlighting some structural problems at your organization about who gets to be considered a stakeholder/expert and why. How, then, do you establish this authority to avoid having your leadership overstepped? Download our Top 12 Leadership Language Tips to Inspire Accountability and Employee Engagement. This part of her feedback needs to be shut down right quick. This is a great approach. One thing I have done is tell the employees that if they have an idea, see me first. Of *course* shes going to comment after the fact, if, as someone who has experience with input, she was not given the opportunity to do so before, and its something that has an impact on a company she cares about and was on the ground floor of. They resist change and dont want to receive, Just one arrogant, dismissive, and condescending person can create a, Most employees only change their inappropriate behaviors when they know that there are consequences for not doing it. Didnt matter, layoffs were across the company and based on the company deciding to go a different direction entirely. Here are a few quick questions you can use to help get you started: NOTE: If you want to learn the official process of how to create accountability anchors and effectively revisit them until your employee meets your expectation, we teach this process in our signature course and book. But I have a job I love now so in the long run, it worked out for me. When I was laid off, I was in the middle of a project and two HUGE projects were starting literally three days later. We didnt really need to hear from you on this.. Random thing if this is an ongoing problem, it could be helpful to let them know the process that went into it. If you get sucked in, you end up feeling like a doormat. I have asked her straight-up I know you enjoyed working with Joe what made that successful and how can I bring some of that to our relationship? If anyone is going to pay attention to anything she says outside of her lane, she needs to limit herself to things that really ARE valuable. Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet. Firmly, yet kindly, tell Jane to stay in her own lane, but if it keeps happening, shut her down less kindly, out in the open, because I guarantee that others are annoyed by it too. But even still.. SCENARIO THREE:My employee gives me advice in a way that feels condescending instead of being engaged and eager to contribute. If shes not a stakeholder, why is she at the meeting? And we know that, sure, we might miss having a say on branding, but if we did, we wouldnt have time to do the cool stuff were doing now. Why in the world wasnt this company expansion done so old employees felt valued? So I think that instilling some confidence not just in the individual coworkers, but in the new processes and in the professionalization of the entire system (there are checks baked in, it doesnt have to be you (and shouldnt be)) can be really helpful with that. This sounds like project ABC. Your boss is not going to fight this battle, because he knows it's a hopeless campaign. Id be very curious to know what management has communicated to the longer-term employees who have lived through this period of growth and are actually the ones that made it happen.