What to do when you inherit a low-energy IT team
Quarantine the sources of low-energy contagion and bring in sources of high energy to replace them
Follow @ITCatalystsDear Bob ...
I just took a new CIO job. It's a turnaround situation -- the entire company knows it needs IT and is equally sure my IT is a complete waste of budget.
[ Also on InfoWorld, Bob Lewis has advice for managers taking on a new team: "You can have an early, effective impact as a new manager" | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld's Advice Line newsletter. ]
I've been here a month. The group I manage (calling it a team is overly optimistic) reminds me of Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh videos. Everything's a problem, it's undoubtedly going to rain today, and nobody likes them.
My direct reports -- the so-called leaders -- are, if anything, worse than the employees who report to them. They've made it clear to me that my problem is that I don't understand how things are done around here. To give you a sense of how bad it is, I asked one of them to do something yesterday and he actually pulled out his job description and explained that what I asked for isn't on it.
A few of the business managers have empathized with my situation. I try to be poker-faced about it, not wanting to undercut my own department, but it's hard. A couple of the business managers also let me know that if I think my managers are bad, I should have seen my predecessor. He was here for three years, and in that time every manager in the company learned his response to any request: "We can't."
I want to give my I-wish-it-was-a-team the benefit of the doubt. My question: Do you see any way to turn them around, or do I have to write them off as damaged goods and start over?
- Drained
Dear Drained ...
Let me summarize. You're surrounded by energy-sucking vampires. You suspect your predecessor was Dracula -- the energy-sucking vampire that turned them into energy-sucking vampires. Dracula is gone. He's left his handiwork behind. They're sucking your energy away, and if you aren't careful you'll turn into one, too.
You don't have to write them all off. You will probably have to write off one or two -- the ones who were willing volunteers.
What you have to do without any further delay is to let your maybe-they-can-become-a-team know what success looks like. Don't just tell them, either. Write it down, in no more than one page of bulleted points. If they want to continue to be managers in your organization they need to (and these are just suggestions):
- Show initiative: You expect managers to look for what needs to be done that isn't getting done. Those who do will find a lot of opportunity. Anyone who waits for you to explain it to them won't be a manager in your organization.
