![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/images\/cactus_hire.jpg\")
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Dear Office Politics,<\/p>\n
I recently received a promotion and hired my replacement; however, everyone who now reports to him hates him. He is a very talented manager of work, but lacks charisma and needs to improve on his people skills. We have lost a couple of good people due to his arrival, and a lot of other changes within the organization. I am working hard to help this manager develop but when do I give up for the sake of the team?<\/p>\n
Please help.<\/p>\n
Manager<\/p>\n
OFFICE-POLITICS ADVISER ERIKA ANDERSEN<\/strong> Dear Manager,<\/p>\n This is a tough one. It\u2019s always hard to let someone go; it\u2019s much harder when you\u2019ve hired the person \u2013 and harder yet when you\u2019ve hired him or her to replace you. I can only imagine how deeply you want to make this work. And that\u2019s all too likely to cloud your judgment about what\u2019s happening. You say he \u201clacks charisma and needs to improve on his people skills\u201d<\/em> \u2013 but that\u2019s pretty generic and mild: there are a lot of not-very-charismatic managers with not-great people skills who don\u2019t engender hatred in their employees and cause good people to leave the organization!<\/p>\n So, I\u2019d suggest you do everything possible to be truly objective. Here\u2019s what I\u2019d suggest:<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Get really clear about what he\u2019s doing that doesn\u2019t work. How can you do that? Ask. And really listen. For instance, if you can do post-exit interviews with the folks who\u2019ve left, that would be really helpful. Or perhaps there\u2019s someone at this person\u2019s level whose discretion and perceptions you trust. Whoever you talk to, get very curious. Dig down into what they tell you in order to get to behaviors. If the person you\u2019re talking to says, for instance, \u201che\u2019s arrogant,\u201d ask \u201cWhat does that look like?\u201d or \u201cCan you give me an example?\u201d He or she might then say, \u201cWhenever someone else has an idea, he immediately disagrees and talks at length about how his idea is better.\u201d Bingo! That\u2019s an actual behavior. And remember \u2013 you\u2019re just trying to gather information here: resist the temptation to explain or defend the manager\u2019s behavior, or your sources will shut right down.<\/p>\n 2. Then, use what you\u2019ve learned to set the bar for him. I\u2019d suggest you select what you think are the three highest-leverage things for him to change (those things that you think would have the biggest positive impact on those around him). Then explain them to him, ask if he thinks he can change them, and \u2013 if so \u2013 decide if he can change them himself (unlikely) or if he needs a coach or some skill training to help him learn new behaviors. Agree on a time-frame for improvement (3-4 months is generally reasonable). Let him know that his continued employment is dependent on the improvement you\u2019ve agreed upon (it\u2019s critical that he know the consequences).<\/p>\n 3. Throughout the trial period, do your level best to provide balanced feedback. If you see improvement, say that. If you see him doing the behaviors he\u2019s agreed to stop or change, say that.<\/p>\n 4. At the end of the trial period, fish or cut bait. This is the hardest part. If he hasn\u2019t improved, or has only improved marginally, let him go. Free him, as a client of mine used to say, \u201cto take his considerable talents elsewhere.\u201d You\u2019ve given him a fair and reasonable chance, and he is clearly unwilling or unable to change.<\/p>\n Hope this is helpful \u2013 please let us know how it goes. I\u2019ve got my fingers crossed for a positive outcome.<\/p>\n Thanks for writing to Office Politics.<\/p>\n Warmly,<\/p>\n Erika Andersen, Author<\/p>\n Erika Andersen<\/a> is the author of Growing Great Employees<\/a>, newly released in paperback, which is a Kirkus Reviews recommended business book for 2007. Erika Andersen and her colleagues at Proteus International, the company she founded in 1990, offer practical approaches for individuals and organizations to clarify and move toward their hoped-for-future. Much of Erika\u2019s recent work has focused on vision and strategy, executive coaching, and culture change. She has served as consultant and advisor to the CEOs and senior executives of corporations like MTV Networks, Molson Coors Brewing, Rainbow Media Holdings, Union Square Hospitality Group, and Comcast Corporation. Erika is an inaugural author of the Penguin Speakers Bureau, and she has been quoted in the New York Times, Industry Week, Investors\u2019 Business daily, and Fortune.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Office Politics, I recently received a promotion and hired my replacement; however, everyone who now reports to him hates him. He is a very talented manager of work, but lacks charisma and needs to improve on his people skills. We have lost a couple of good people due to his arrival, and a lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[193,26,254,373,665,372],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-backstabbers","category-office-politics","tag-erika-andersen","tag-franke-james","tag-growing-great-employees","tag-hated","tag-office-politics","tag-prickly"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"erika](\"https:\/\/www.officepolitics.com\/images\/andersen.jpg\")
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