I recently took a position with a new company and have three administrative staff who report to me. Some challenges I’ve been given by my boss, the VP and Division Manager, are to clean up the overall office of clutter and make optimal use of our space as we are running out of room. My biggest challenge so far is not coming up with solutions to better optimize the space, but getting the three administrative personnel to get on board with me. I get constant resistance from them. I take so much energy trying to convince them of my strategy and the payoff for everyone, only to hear they are complaining to other staff about me.
Some history, all three staff members have been with the company for a few years and were without a supervisor for approximately a month before I started. They tend to tell me the hours they plan to work rather than ask for approval for anything that doesn’t fall within the standard work hours. One staff member assisted my boss on an interim basis until I was hired; she also applied for my position and did not get it. Two quotes I hear continuously are, “that’s not in my job description” and “it’s always been this way”. I have set up weekly Admin Meetings to bring the four of us together to brain storm new ideas and get recommendations from everyone, hoping if they felt they were part of the decision making process I’d get more buy in but all I get is complaining from them or the attitude, “it will never work”. I’m desperate to get our group working together as a team and buy-in to a positive “work together to make things better for everyone” mentality. I’m the type of person who will jump in and do anything that needs to be done, (i.e. run the mail if I’m going downstairs or someone is busy and needs some help, restock the break room supplies when I see they are getting low, take 10 minutes to do some filing when I see it piling up, etc.). How do I get my group to move toward this type of team player attitude? HELP!
The Team Doc Says…
It’s tough to walk into an organization as a new team leader and get instant respect. You’re dealing with deeply rooted culture issues that must be overcome one step at a time. From your description of the events, it sounds like you have come up with a solution and told them what it should be and how they will carry it out. Although there is nothing wrong with that (after all you are their leader), it’s not the best way to bring them on board with you.
A better way is to bring them together and come up with solutions as a team. That way they have more “skin in the game” and can own the solution in addition to owning the problem and will have more of a tendency to want to carry the solution to implementation.
Getting team members together on a regular basis is a good idea. Just make sure it’s not a “talk fest” meaning all of you get in a room and you do all the talking. If you are truly serious about getting them on board, you need to let them come up with some of the answers.
Here are some resources to help you along.
- Leadership — Do the Simple but Important Things
- Effective Listening Equals Effective Leadership
- Change: It Doesn’t Have to be So Difficult
Reader, what else can you recommend? Please leave a comment.
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