The worst management anti-pattern is promising up, and blaming down.
Notes:
- In my experience, the number one management anti-pattern is promising up, and blaming down.
- Using this approach, a manager is making all kinds of promises to senior stake-holders, while blaming their own team if those promises are not met.
- It is toxic, but sadly quite common.
- I especially see it with inexperienced leaders, who are enamoured with the opinions of senior managers, while could not care less about the opinions of those they lead.
- That is not exclusive however: I have also seen it in experienced managers who come from organisations where such toxic behaviour is the norm.
- It is another form of "Over promise, and under deliver", but it is even worse because the leader is blaming their own team for under delivering on unrealistic promises.
- If your manager behaves this way, then you need to find another manager.
- It is only a matter of time before they throw you under the bus.
- If you are such a manager, you need to do better: your job is to lead your team, not blame them.
- Start by not making promises until you consult with your team first, to assess feasibility and estimates.
- Secondly, pad your promises to your stake holders: as you never know what the future holds, so ensure you have enough bandwidth to mitigate against potential delays.
- And finally, you must build trust with you team!
- If they do not trust you, they will leave and let you pick up the pieces.
- They have zero reason to remain loyal to you if you are not loyal to them.
- Short-term this approach may seem tempting to the manager, but eventually someone senior will call your bluff on all of those promises, and pin the ownership of those failures on you.
- What I am working on this week:
- My web search engine greppr.org now supports date range filters!
- Media I am enjoying this week:
- Aegeon Science Fiction Illustrated issue 4
Notes and subscription links are here: https://techleader.pro/a/653-Promising-up-and-blaming-down-(TLP-2024w28)
