I am a team leader of 10 people and have a group of 6 of them who stick together and disagee with me on most issues. Always looking for me to do something wrong to report to my supervisor. Even the smallest thing. The bad part is our new supervisor believes them. This is a very stressful situation for me. Any advice?
The Team Doc Says…
Yes. Get another job. Okay so that’s not the best option in this day and time, so try a couple other things first.
1. Set up a meeting with your supervisor. You want to make sure you focus on facts, not emotion during this discussion so do some preplanning. Here is a process you can use:
Open —-> Clarify —-> Develop —-> Agree —-> Close
Open: Initiate the discussion by focusing on the problem not the person.
Clarify: Define the problem in neutral terms.
Develop: Identify alternatives and solutions.
Agree: Evaluate the alternatives to determine a “win-win” outcome.
Close: Verify commitment. Create an action plan to implement the solution.
I would think your solution would be support from your supervisor. At the very least, you’ll want to get agreement that when your staff goes to her, she doesn’t get in the middle of the discussion.
2. Once you have things squared away with your supervisor, it’s time to talk with your staff. I’d talk with them one-on-one. Use the same process to get clarification of the issue and to help you figure out why they are going behind your back. Use a lot of “help me understand…” and “when you do this, it causes this…” type language. Be ready for some frank feedback and be prepared to take action on that feedback.
Set up a plan to communicate on a regular basis with your team and your boss to help build your credibility.
What else reader? Please leave a comment.
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Well, I certainly don’t know the specifics here. But what if you’re in the wrong role for your current skill set? Leadership is a skill that doesn’t come naturally (despite our assumption that it does.) Are there any professional development classes about management that you can take to help you along? Of course reaching out here is a great first step. So perhaps that will suffice for your situation.