This week in pm-clinic: Dealing with the powerful but annoying
This week in the pm-clinic discussion forum:
The manager for my team is one of the company founders. He’s smart, but oh man, is he annoying. He has a litany of habits that make my life, as a team leader, frustrating: from disrupting my authority in front of others, to changing his mind and then changing it back, to just being downright egotistical, snide and resistant to ideas from others. He is smart and does contribute, and listens about 1/3rd of the time, just enough to prevent the other founders from doing anything about him.
So I have to work with this man: he’s not going anywhere, and he has significant power over me, my team, and the company. So how can I protect myself and my team from his many less than delightful habits?
– Stuck in Annoyanceville
From your position, doesn’t sound like there’s anything you can do to “manage” him. Nor is it realistic to expect him to change.
If you want to continue to work in the environment he creates, you might find it more profitable (and healthy for your sanity) to manage your own expectations. Don’t expect the outcome of interactions with him to be any different tomorrow, or on project x or under circumstances y, then they’ve been in the past.
“disrupting my authority”, “snide”, “egotistical” are often in the eye of the beholder. How much agreement is there in the team about this? You should check.
Sometimes, middle management tries to maitain authority by controlling information flow. When their boss talks directly to the team, it looks like disrupting authority. Do you do something like this?
True authority is leadership. It is not appointed by management structure, it is given to the appointed manager by the team. If your team sees you as a leader, almost nothing your boss does takes it away from you.
You may not know how good or bad you really are. I was manager of a team for two years and never knew that my team felt I did a good job until I changed job. On the last day, the team members came to say goodbye and told me I had been one of the best boss they ever had. And I tought I was barely in control!
Check with your team. If they see you as a true leader you can ignore the antics of that owner-boss. If they do not, consider that the problem is not him.
On the other hand, if this person is a real egocentric socially maladapted individual, you need to ask yourself if it’s worth it. If you are a good team leader, you might be happier to work for a decent human being.