I'm a rank and file, and our business operates 24 hours so we have 3 shifts. Our team has been through ups and downs, but 1 constant thing happens every year: tension among members

Whenever there is a business need that we have to take action on, our sup just asks each person's "preference". While this is okay for stuff like "who wants to join this", for work set-ups, IT'S NOT.

She says that she asks for our preferences on major things (shift schedule and skeletal workforce) because this way is fair for everyone.

But what happens is people having a contest of who got the biggest "valid" reason why they can't be on this shift or that ( the GY shift specifically). Our contracts all state we must comply to a rotating schedule, but what my Sup does is put ALL the decision-making on us, make us fight for the slots. And when a disagreement ensues, or one personnel approaches her for their concerns, SHE BLAMES IT ON THE TEAM. Always the clean hands, telling us she agreed to the plan because we agreed on the plan.

Something that could have had been set in 10 mins, we discuss and debate for hours and days. We would end the shit by voting, so expectedly, the best friends among the team voted for themselves to stay on AM shift. All the "capable" stuck and burnt out on GY shift.

She has been escalated at least twice in recent years for reasons ("lazy) other than my focus here. Higher management displeased but that's just it. Of course, all the blame is external to hers. Her thinking is that she's empowering us by allowing us to be independent and come up with action plans. Would educate anyone asking about her approach that she has laissez faire leadership. Instead what happens is frustrations of the members towards one another.

While she has her suckass editors in the team who don't see anything wrong with her management, most of us concur that she's a very weak leader. Afraid to make decisions, afraid of accountability.

Now, Sup was supposed to find work in Dubai in March, but covid happened. She said she's been unhappy with the team as she felt unappreciated.

I thought great! I really think this could be beneficial to everyone. I've been encouraging her to apply in sales (she was a sales manager prior to our team). But lately she said she's postponing her application indefinitely, because she's thought about things and she didn't want to leave us in our own immaturity.

I love my work, but I think this is a sign for me already to leave instead?

Hello,

Back story, I'm gonna be a graduate soon with degree in Computer Science and Engineering. Was involved with my technical club before and I realised that I like the management aspect when I was involved in organising events and other stuff. Even had planned an event by myself but it wasn't passed through due to faculties. And I'm looking to join a MBA course later on, probably with a focus on Business Analytics and General Management/IT Management.

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What I want to ask is the legibility of MBA courses online, especially the one below.

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Now, I'm well aware that you can't learn a degree's worth education from a single course (as is faced by the entire CS degree situation), but with this lockdown, how worthwhile would doing this course be? Can I use it and my prior experience to apply for higher management roles and study MBA later on?

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Tl;dr: I am a soon CS graduate, looking to persue MBA in Analytics and Management. How worthwhile is the below Udemy course?

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https://www.udemy.com/share/101WeS/

Hi all,

I would really appreciate your experience on this matter, especially those of you who work in bigger companies ( 100+ employees ). Which tools are used? Are you satisfied with the way it functions? What doesn't work well?

I'm trying to locate the pain points in the training and employee development process.

You can reply with a comment, PM me, or better yet take 3-4min to fill out this Google Form with more specific questions.

Thanks anyway!

Are there ways in which this KPI could be intentionally or unintentionally affected by external factors?

I am starting a new job as an in-house researcher (focused on strategy and organizational change) for a large US organization. Having been trained as an organizational sociologist, I have a lot of research experience, but no background in management consulting, etc. Are there any texts that provide a good overview of current management trends and research methods that I could read to get a head-start at this new job? I’d also accept good blogs that provide this sort of content. Thanks.

For context: I'm an employee in the creative industry. I am one of the youngest on a small team (8 people). I've been at this company for five years now, and I feel like I'm starting to see cracks in my boss' management style. However, I have tendencies to be ambitious and competitive, so I would like other managers opinions on the situation.

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Our industry is one of those where many managers are simply technical employees who performed well enough to earn the promotion. There are many team leads whose day to day still involve a lot of hands on work, and my boss is no exception.

Personally, I get on very well with him. I think as a coach for individual growth, he is very good. He balances critique with encouragement nicely, and has been very supportive of my development over the last five years, giving me more and more responsibility.

The issues have become more noticeable in the last two years, when I feel I have started to outperform some of my peers, but haven't been 'rewarded' appropriately (I hesitate to use the term - but can't think of a better one at this time). Obviously my own performance evaluation is subjective, but I believe there is a basis for this. Over the last year, I have been receiving more attention from my boss' boss, and I'm working with her some more on various innovations.

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My opinion is that my boss has two weaknesses - stringent adherence to exiting hierarchies, and by the books conflict resolution.

The above manifests itself in these situations:

• Layers of decision making/design by committee being added for the sake of retaining hierarchy within the team
• Me not receiving official responsibility, despite being given unofficial responsibility of large tasks.
• Conflict resolution always feels straight out of a management 101; ie satisfy everyone via overly even compromise.

As I mentioned before, my boss is great for individual growth. However this actually ends up causing confusion for me, because I will start to receive mixed messages. For example, in the past, I've been encouraged to just 'do' my tasks and not worry about everyone's opinions as it can muddy the waters. But at the same time, if a team mate brings up issues, it snaps back to formal hierarchy and never ending email discussions.

As I write this, the problem has crystallised a bit more in my head. I feel like he's very happy for me to work as I do under the table, as I bring the most innovation to the team, but if other people get involved, my actual responsibilities diminish as he feels too worried of rocking the boat and disrupting the team hierarchy.

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Does this make sense? Is this something you've encountered? Am I being an insubordinate employee?

I would love to get some insight from other managers. I understand his situation is difficult, but I feel it's not being handled in the most efficient manner.

Hi All,

For management in this thread, how do you define executive presence? What does a mid-level employee/IC who demonstrates executive presence do? What are examples of those who do not demonstrate this? Any tips for building executive presence? It seems to be a bit amorphous. Tanks!

I'm looking for some reading to help me put some words to my thoughts.

In short, I have some employees that I manage that are good at listening to what I ask them to do and can properly cruise through small hiccups or open-ended problems. Others are more self-proclaimed "artists" or poor man's Martha Stewarts. Hypothetical example, the task was drill a whole through a wall and run a wire through it. Employee A is done in 15 mins and asks for another task. Employee B spends 15 mins thinking about it then wants to discuss options with me. Is the size hole you chose large enough? Where look best? Can we protect the wire from the edges of the plywood? Should we consider heavier wire?

My last job called this mind f@$^ing. Is there a more eloquent name?

I want to encourage them, but I want them to recognize that their desire to put their own spin on everything is rooted in their own ego, not in them wanting to be a good employee.

Personally I hate being treated like I need to be a better robot. So I don't want to treat them that way, but we get paid to complete things, how can I incentivize them for that to be their priority? How can I give them an outlet for their creativity?

Okay - need help.

I have been part of a team for about a year. I work in Gov. Team used to report directly to a Sr. Manager. She had 20 direct reports. A manager position was created (my position). Now half the team reports to me - half reports to her. However - since the beginning there has been pushback.

Issue 1: I am a outside hire. Apparently it is "unheard of" for someone to come from outside of gov into a manager role.

Issue 2: My age. I am mid-30's. There are many on the team in their 50's who now have to report to me

So my big issue is this - the team does not respect or listen to me. They constantly go around me to the Sr. Manager. If I give a direction - they pushback. If Sr Manager gives the exact same direction - they listen and jump to action.

At first I thought it was "the old guard". However, there is a new hire (who I pushed for!) who joined about 3 months ago. And she is doing the same thing! Will only take direction from the Sr. Manager.

I am unsure of how to navigate this. There is a toxic team dynamic that seems to be supported by Sr Management.

I worked hard to get this role - and I am highly accomplished in my field. I can go back to private sector immediately and shine (have already been offered another position by someone in my network).

I am not a quitter, and want to make my team function better. I also want to be respected in my role. Because it is gov, and is union - they all know I cannot do anything lasting to them (cannot fire, cannot demote, there are no bonuses I can hold back) - and I don't want to lead from fear anyway. How do I resolve the situation? I want to address the team going around me all the time - but I don't know how to do it in a constructive way.

Any advice on how to navigate this? I have already addressed this with the Sr. Manager - who tries her best to refer them back to me. How do I address this with the team? Or should I just jump ship?

I started here 3 months ago at the same time as my coworker, Jennifer (fake name). A few weeks in, I learned my manager hired my coworker despite her not having any experience with the softwares or industry because she had a great attitude. I didn't have any issues with that until I realized how much I'd be supplementing for her. I've trained her on how to use every program from scratch and have been her first resource with all issues or when she doesn't know how to start a project and "needs my brain." My manager hasn't acknowledged that I've trained her at all, or that I help her even (despite it not being in my description and her making the same as me), and I feel as though he expects me to give her credit for my achievements.

First major instance: I was assigned to design a presentation for a multi-million dollar contract sales pitch for the president of our company. I knocked it out in a day, no time for anyone else to see it until it was done. The next day, my manager came to my coworker and I and said we got the contract, the presentation went great, and the entire board wanted a copy of the presentation and said it was the best they had seen yet. Jennifer looked at me with a huge smile, excited for me. "So, great job and congrats you guys," my manager says. I was happy and then confused. But whatever, I was happy, right?

Second instance: I walk into the office to hear Jennifer get complimented on her writing in the latest newsletter. I was excited to read it, as I know she had struggled with writing and frequently asked for my help and inspiration on other projects. I pulled up her newsletter and saw it was 100% written by me, and copy and pasted from my current pending projects, with the exception of one added sentence. I had already felt this feeling a couple times at this point, and during my 1-on-1 meeting with my manager, I decided to bring it up and say, "Hey, this isn't super comfortable for me to say, and this is no disrespect to Jennifer, but I just wanted to ask if you had noticed that the newsletter from today was written by me? I just wanted to check in and make sure you were liking how things were looking." He said, "I mean, yeah, I notice you sometimes write more than Jennifer does. But ultimately, I want things coming from a team." The conversation ended there.

Today: A week ago, I presented an idea and preview to my manager. He told me, "This is great, and I mean, it's our end goal and the style we're going for. But it's probably not ideal for now, with everything going on, so let's just do it a faster way instead." I understood and put my preview back in my desk. Today, I turned around and saw my coworker working on my idea. In the same design as my preview (which my coworker had seen when I presented it to our manager). With the same documents. I said, "Hey, sorry, I think Mike said that design direction was a no-go." And she said, "Oh, but he told me to do it Monday though, and approved it."

How would you tackle this situation? Thank you for your time!

So started a new job and one item raised to me as a surprise is to run/manage the IT Support team. But there’s a catch ..... no team exists and they’re looking me to create it and mold it any way I know how.

Problem is never did IT support before. First task is to create a process to handle tickets and investigations. Luckily they have a ticketing system but really don’t know where to start since Support is new to me.

Any advice?

Is there a game theoretic or scientific perspective on this that goes beyond simply the usual surface level analysis on cooperative versus defective and the various strategies that crop up from that?

How do I deal with this guy who asks me a million questions about how to do my job because he wants to become me, and then when I go away from him to do my job he tells me that I'm just trying to cling to power and keep him down. He's extremely passionate about "wanting to help others" but really he's just ambitious as hell, doesn't care about anyone but himself, and is more than willing to step all over anyone and everyone in order to seize a management position.

Also, what are the best subs for questions like this one.

I quit last year for a different internship and because I was starting school. We did not end on bad terms. I am still going to fill out the application again but I just want to know if I should email my old manager for any reason? Courtesy reasons?

My ex-coworked did email the manager before applying again. I just wasnt sure if this was common practice.

Thanks!

Hi, does anyone know this theory?

I'm struggling to find it and have a peice of work I need to get done. Would really appreciate a bit of info

Hiring new employees is costly for companies: the hiring process itself, the training, the adaptation phase, numbers add up. But I feel employees, especially millennials, tend to leave from company to company. What do you do to earn their loyalty and retain them for more than a few years? Or should I just accept the situation?

Hello,

I recently (7 months ago) got the chance to lead a department for my org. I have around 45 active employees working Mon-Fri, and they work at our clients offices. Some work together at a maximum of 4 while most work alone or as a duo.

I find it hard to observe my employees to see what they might need from me due to not meeting them in person that much. Any kind of evaluation or performance review is hard to stage due to them having to work the same hours I do for the clients.

I am looking for advice, guides, podcasts, books etc that might help me give higher value to the ones I am managing. Specifically regarding leading them to improve in their weak areas and discovering potential hickups before my client voices concern.

Been reading on reddit and other sites as well as currently listening to John Maxwell podcast but it's hard to apply due to many regering to working with your team each day in person.

Hi All I am a new project manager at a large company. My work involves a lot of projects that range from 1-3 months that range from low to high priority. High priority is typically anything client facing power point presentations,and Project summaries ect. Low priority is typically more back end work like database updates, and filing documents. In order to complete this we offshore much of it overseas. Im seeing a trend of high priority items being completed. While lower priority projects are being dropped. What are some strategies I can implement?

So far we meet 3x a week for 30 min updates in which high priority items and general updates take up the entire time.

We receive summaries twice a week or more if needed. Low priority items are known to be dropped occasionally and we need to request it only to discover the project has not been updated in x amount of weeks Due to either negligence, uncooperative resources, or unanswered questions

I want these low priority projects completed with the same level of efficiency and follow through as the high priority projects

Note Low priority projects basically emails blasts for data collection legal documents and database updates. Essentially this work needs to be done but is one of those things if it isn't done immediately nothing happens until it does.

I have accepted a new position where I will have one or more direct reports for the first time in my career. It is a professional office environment with 250 employees and growing. What resources does reddit recommend I take a look at?

Hi all my team has recently expanded overseas to India. The overseas team works our nights and mainly does background audits and document tracking. Each of there projects typically take about 2-3 months to complete. As these projects drag on, new ones come into motion and so on and so forth basically nonstop. Im now seeing a trend of the new team struggling in areas like completing projects on time, keeping trackers updated, and reporting in a timely manner esp towards the last few weeks of a project A lot of this may be due to the current workload but as management is there anything I can implement to keep the same level of efficiency throughout the entirety of the projects?

Note both teams work opposite hours, time is a luxury

Many people often do not know or let the daily fires help them forget the true core of their job.

1. Establish a vision and direction
2. Interact with your team in a way that makes them WANT to perform
3. Develop those around you
4. Break down obstacles (internal and external) that keep your team from performing.

Those are the four core things you need to accomplish as a leader if you want success. So one needs to ask themselves, what type of person do I need to be in order to accomplish that?

I got offered a job as a Manager of a shop in a shopping mall. I always worked as a salesman/customer service/or pr specialist.

Any tips how to make my start smooth? I am brand new to the shop, and I will have a brand new team who never worked there. I have a really broad experience when it comes to selling and managing customers. I am a little stressed in a positive way because I have no experience when it comes to managing people as a someone with higher rank but I know much about working as a salesman. I always managed teams but as a co-worker instead of being someone higher rank.

Would love to hear some Stories, encouragement and tips if you can spare me a few minutes.

I will have to keep the sales going, am responsible for visual marketing and keeping the morale up and help to teach my team how to sale. It is a clothing/shoes shop (Adidas, Nike, and other sporty brands).

I am a manager of a recruitment team. There are 2 of us. Our typical roles are me being the Account Manager and my employee (Abby) recruiting on my jobs. We are both paid 100% commissions, with each splitting the fees when we win a job.

Abby is a good recruiter for lower to upper intermediate level jobs, but lacks the personality to create a bond or rapport with Sr people (directors, VPs, etc...) She is unaware of this, but as her manager, I have seen it this past year.

We are busy as stink. We have 15 or so jobs open for 2 people. This is 300% more than Abby can do, so she is spreading herself thin, as she does not want to lose any of them. I have been allowing her free reign, as this is my first year as a manager so I have been managing on emotions (which I now realize does not help the team or business).

The problem with her is that if I cut some jobs off from Abby, and work on them myself, I make 100% of the commissions. This has happened a few times in the past, and even though she got a little discouraged, she put up with it.

Yesterday, in a meeting, she told me she was happy that my own candidate did not win a job and that if it keeps happening, she will walk off the job. At first, I saw this as just venting and frustration, but realized later in the day that the emotional manager would see it that way, and not doing what's best for the business.

This threat of leaving is serious. I need a team player and someone who encourages wins. How would you address this with Abby? Is it my fault for not establishing clear ground rules from the beginning? This is obviously not sustainable, and she needs to understand she can't have it all.

Thanks for reading. If you need further clarification, don't be shy.