My " Job X Team Lead" isn't approved to do Job X after a year, the team doesn't respect her due to this, and she's not leading anyone anywhere.

Anonymous

August 15,2023 at 3:01PM UTC

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My " Job X Team Lead" isn't approved to do Job X after a year, the team doesn't respect her due to this, and she's not leading anyone anywhere.

I took on the Job X Team Lead role about 2 years ago and my first order of business was to become the expert at Job X. I was promoted after 6 months to Department XYZ Manager, and promoted after 14 months to Department XYZ Director.

I hired a new Job X Team Lead but she seems to have no motivation at all to actually...do the job. This job does require specific training and authorization before it can be done. 10 months later, she's still not authorized. She has tried to delegate her other activities to her team members who are authorized to do Job X (meaning 1 less person doing Job X because she's assigned them to her own duties.)

She spends a lot of time doing 1:1's but honestly...I am not sure what else she is doing. She asked to enroll in a management training course in our company and I declined, I told her she needs to do Job X first. She pushed back so I gave her a long list of all of the Job X things that are being unfulfilled and told her doing Job X needs to become her top priority BUT she cannot delegate anything else, either. Having done her exact role, I know exactly how much time she should be devoting to these things and it's just not happening. The Job X team doesn't respect her because she's not "in the trenches" with them and seems very aloof. They still come to me for so many questions although I try really hard to push it back to her. The team is saying she's not available and not responsive. When I asked her about it, she got very defensive and said she's responding to everything within an hour.

If possible, I'd like to motivate her to excel (or at least be mediocre). If that's not possible, what else can I do other than get rid of her? Was I wrong to decline her training request? I'm open to ideas about what I can do, because I'm desperate for help, I'm overloaded, and she's not picking up anything. For sure, the management training would benefit her. I just do not think it would benefit the team right now. They need her help, too.

Thanks for listening, and for advice.

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AnonymousAugust 15,2023 at 3:53PM UTC
You need to put her on a performance improvement plan with specific SMART goals and objectives. For example, staff person will spend eight hours shadowing two different employees bye end of month. Manager will cover staff persons work for those eight hours. Staff person will demonstrate proficiency in the following list of functions by end of month two. Manager will provide the following training, tools and opportunities associated with staff learning needs: Manager will relieve staff person of duties for 16 hours in order to provide time for learning. Staff person will cover two open shifts and successfully carry out all job functions by end of month three, as demonstrated by Job log for coverage days. Etc. Also, as hard as it is, anytime, her staff goes around her and comes to you, you need to bring her in and make it a three-way. Good luck with this! Performance improvement plans have gotten a bad name so you might need to call it something else, but I have actually seen this work
AnonymousAugust 15,2023 at 6:06PM UTC
Draft a detailed plan, with deadline, deliverables and clear and concise goals and metrics explained.
This is your job to clearly communicate your expectations for her development.
KatAugust 16,2023 at 6:26AM UTC
Why is firing her not an option? You hired her to do job and she's not doing it. Her team doesn't like her, she's unavailable to them when they have problems. It's been almost a year and things haven't improved. She has no desire to do the job she was hired for. Why keep her on? Some people won't be motivated to succeed no matter what you do. Try a PIP as others have suggested. Provide clear expectations/goals with a reasonable timeline to meet them. If she can't/won't do it, move the termination process along. If for some reason you can't fire her (related to the boss or whatever else) get her transferred out of your area and promote someone on her team to the job.
AnonymousAugust 16,2023 at 3:57PM UTC
You cannot infuse motivation into someone where it does not exist. Clearly her impression of being a manager of people differs from yours. Suggest you sit her down and set expectations and time box some things you want her to do and achieve. If this is not done then you might have to define a pip around getting them done. As for management training, I do think perhaps she does need that and not allowing her to have that is not helping the situation. If someone has not had any training to manage others they often benefit greatly from understanding what that means. As her manager supporting her success and guiding the team to be more open to her style is best for her potential of success. If you cannot offer that up to her, I would question your leadership because not everyone excels or learns at the same pace. Yes, you are overloaded but perhaps you can also take something off your plate give it to her as a task and measure her on that for time, effectiveness etc. Be direct, be specific but don't micromanage her through it and let her know how much you do tactically as well.
The in the trenches often needs to be shown to new hires. Give it another 90 days with close watching of how things get approached, and if there is not ANY improvement then you may have to terminate her. I think this does seem fixable but it means you have to step up to manage this resource that you hired thinking she could just run with it and she has not.