Quote from John Freeman on December 31, 2023, 9:33 pm

Mmmh, that's a tough one.

So I'll summarize to get my thoughts together:

He:

1. Is avoiding work
2. Uses smart alecing
3. Is procrastinating
4. Over-inflates the difficulty of the task
5. You cannot direct him directly
6. Resources are controlled by Business and IT

Alright, it's helpful. So basically there is:

1. Him: basically what you want is accountability from him as you proposed. So yes, you need an accountability system as you said. But I think the one you proposed is too formal and asks a lot of leadership capital (good employees get punished for the bad one as well: restriction on their freedom therefore disempowers them). So I think a low effort accountability system: maybe ask him by email when he's going to do task X and document it.
2. Him within the team: other people probably noticed this pattern already. So the next step is surfacing I think. That would be to ask around innocently or jokingly if they noticed this pattern. That is to know who noticed it and who did not. You can gather intel this way as well and better understand his behavioural pattern
3. Person who has authority on him: I think first you need evidence. So it's about step 1. Otherwise, he just has a bad attitude and nobody cares as it's your project so push it yourself. So I noticed my bosses react only when it's threatening the reputation, safety, etc. In your case it could be productivity or money. What is the metric they care about? It's important intel. Then you want to notify the boss of an event where this person fucked up this metric. And now it's on their radar. Then there's a next event and now you can ask this person using the boss' authority: "I talked with Paul and we both agree that it's good that...". Because you don't have direct authority, you have to use power borrowing. There's no other way that I see for now.

So basically, I think it's about:

1. Documenting the poor performance
2. Surfacing the poor behaviour
3. Signaling the poor behaviour to people who have authority over him
4. Demand behavioural change through power borrowing

At least that's my current experience with the rebel resident. She started to be careful only when there was consequences. Manipulators only care about carrots and sticks in my experience. They don't usually have inner value that guide their behaviour. So one cannot appeal to their intrinsic motivation. So it's about: "how can I get leverage on this person?". Of course, it's not personal, it's about the work. So it's "how can I get leverage on this person so they do their tasks?".

Note: When I say "you want to" I mean "I propose you to" or "I suggest you to", so it's a figure of speech. Let me know if that bothers you and I won't use it.

Quote from Transitioned on December 31, 2023, 11:09 pm

Thanks John you hit the nail on the head the bad structure that management have setup is the root cause.  It's even worse than usual in this particular company because I am the business pm and we have a tech pm on the same project.  I haven't seen that set up for over 10 years because the industry eventually worked out that it was rubbish.

I think your number one is the number one with a bullet.  This guy does seem to respond better if you get into the weeds with him and try and work alongside.  It's a pain because I'm investing my time to make up for his deficiencies but TINA.

Unfortunately calling out the bad behaviour is likely to be counterproductive because most of the resources are on the project r IT resources so they will just close ranks and his boss is the one he is pushing the agendas for.  And IT didn't actually want this project to happen.

Like I said it's a particularly messy one in a messy place.  So I think the mother hen style of just checking in with him all the time on teams making sure stuff is moving, are people helping  him, asking him if he has any problems, will he actually bloody do something one day?  Is the only way to go.

Tactically I can do one thing right away because he is on leave for two weeks and I have a good architect instead so I will try and get as much solved with this guy as possible before this clown comes back.

It was more a general question about how you deal with this particular Style of dominance because IT architects and other Uber techies are as common as cockroaches in my world

 

Quote from John Freeman on December 31, 2023, 11:13 pm

So it's about power then. He has too much power. So either you acquire more than him or your become his boss or you leave.

2 bosses for same report = bad management we know now.

What's TINA?

Quote from Transitioned on December 31, 2023, 11:34 pm

Yeah it's one of the many things that is badly wrong about this place IT always seem to be in the driving seat.  Which is ridiculous they are meant to be just a service department to the business. It's the same with procurement and finance they just seem to be able to block anytime they feel like it.

power borrowing on this one is pretty tricky.  The boss group above who r meant to help the project r also pretty useless.  Hopelessly siloed and patch driven.  And every time I bring an issue to them unless it has a simple solution and sometimes I do that just to make them feel useful.  Tie my shoelaces you say bosses what a great idea I will do that.  Any complex issue I bring to them they just pile extra work on me.  Because they have boss power and that's the easy way out.

TINA is something I stole from engineering.  There Is No Alternative.  Poor options available you just have to crunch through.

I am actually trying to leave because the whole place is just too messy and the role is a very badly defined.  To add to the fun I am being caught between two warring bosses both of whom are able to direct me.  So I've decided with this gig the juice is not worth the squeeze.  I'm applying for more relevant roles product manager and IT manager because they have real outcomes - the lights have to stay on and the customers have to get products they will buy.  Late career to be doing a cross over successfully but Mama Transitioned didn't raise any quitters

 

Quote from Transitioned on December 31, 2023, 11:40 pm

I know a lot of my case studies probably make for depressing reading because they are very tough situations.  But you know I am a senior guy so I'm not going to be struggling with anything easy.

And I think it's one of my big value ads here that I do bring tough case studies to the forum.  No tool or framework can be trusted until it's pressure tested PU can't be the exception.

Quote from John Freeman on January 4, 2024, 1:23 am

Based on what you told me offline, I think it's a matter of social finesse.

So basically, he's holding up court and monopolizing air time. So I think it's less a matter of strategy and/or power after better understanding.

So this one is a cunning rhino.

So I think I would experiment with a few approach. So in this case I think it's a matter of running experiments and see what is sticky.

The first one I would try is the polite approach since this:

If I try and cut him short he always assertively almost half shouting says let me finish please.  Problem is this guy is shifty and doesn't like accountability and loves to play out the clock so he will never finish.

Is the core of the issue.

So we established that cutting him short is not working.

I would go:

Transitioned: I would like to say something..

Or

Transitioned: May I say something?

Another approach would be the "agree and redirect":

Transitioned (showing agreement body language: nodding/smiling and when he sees you agree): Yes, totally, what I think is... [whatever you want]

However, there is always a strategical part. Here he sees you as an enemy/antagonist. So I would work on my relationship with him beforehand. Actually being able to influence him would be great. On the strategy side, there is also the approach to set limits at the beginning of the meeting:

Transitioned: Welcome everyone, I would like to hear several opinions today. So I'll be careful that everyone has an equal speech duration.

Or something like that. You see my point.

If you experiment with any of these and it does not work and come back here to say what did not work maybe I can think of other approaches.

Cheers.

Quote from Transitioned on January 4, 2024, 8:19 am

Thanks John all of that is great.  I had thought of using the power of the group.  Saying something like we've got a bigger team now so to get round everybody if you can just hit the highlights and your key blocker.

I thought that because they love the detail it might not be effective but maybe I was just second guessing myself.

I think you are tip top on the money it is such an odd group probably best to just run some experiments see how it goes.

 

 

Quote from John Freeman on January 5, 2024, 7:29 am

Hello friend,

I'm glad it makes sense to you. :)

Cheers.