Just became a new peoples manager. Looking for recommendations on dealing with the politics that comes along. For example: My current manager can be an irritating micromanager. This person has started targeting few of of directs giving them assignments and tracking them directly. I find that inappropriate and more to that one of my directs opened up about this during 1:1 and seeking my help. How can I shield this person from upper management?
Never take the credit when your team does well. Always take the heat when they make a mistake, and manage performance issues 1:1.
Another tip for someone who is a micromanager is to overwhelm them with a activity. Schedule lots of meetings, send thrm lots of data, inundate them with facts. In a few weeks they will back off.
Make extra effort to be highly predictable. And always value your reports' time as much as your own. No one likes a manager who reschedules a meeting 3 times and arrives 15 min late. Being consistent and desciplined will earn you a lot of respect with your reports.
Dealing with politics: Listen a lot, smile, and never take it personally.
Why is your manager assigning work to your report? If they have a performance concern about them they should be asking you
I am planning to have a discussion about this with my manager and point out that this activity is demoralizing my directs. Just trying to figure out the right words to use. Any advice?
Get off my lawn..
does your manager care about morale? make sure you frame the issue in terms they value, whether morale, productivity, etc. Your manager is doing this because it works for them at some level. You need to illustrate how it really isn't working, and propose a system that works for everyone.
Make sure if you talk with your direct MGR that u do so with no emotion. Facts. Questions. It costs u nothing to ask questions and root out motives. Getting emotional will cause your manager to dis engage
Do what you say you will do. Admit when you've fucked up. Don't gossip.
Find out what your employees love to do. What do they want to learn while there? How can you help them succeed? What motivates them? What traits make a good manager in their opinion? Actually get to know them and encourage them to be their full selves. I've helped reports get raises, get new jobs, cope with personal issues, change roles to new managers, and even resign. It is 95% emotional intelligence and it makes a huge difference when you realize that.
if you act as the filter for your team, your directs will never grow. Empower your directs to be able to say yes/no to your bosses. Let them decide if your boss' ask is interesting/valuable to the company, and will it give them higher visibility. Establish a strong relationship with your boss and your direct so that you can mediate when needed. Simply put - Stay on top of things, but be loosely coupled.
This ^^