Who’s In Charge??

In today’s flattened organizations, it is not uncommon for your employees to be reporting to other supervisors as well. This can be extremely frustrating to the employee who tries to balance priorities from multiple sources. With the high cost of turnover costing your organization a great deal of money, it is important to try to manage your employee in a way that considers all of their responsibilities.

Having many bosses is complicated and if you do not communicate well with your employee you both can become frustrated. There are several steps to mitigate the risks and make your job, and theirs a lot easier.

Manager Meetings: Periodically, pull together all of the managers and the employee to understand what each is asking the employee to do. This will help you all to understand the plight of the employee. When you understand that everyone will feel their assignments are most important you begin to see what the employee struggles with every day. It will also help you to set up a priority that works for all managers.

Communication: Develop a means to communicate what each supervisor is giving to the employee. This can be a private internal online portal with controlled access or something as simple as a white board. This way not only does the employee have a visual project board, but managers can see what the employee has before giving additional assignments.

Boundaries: Work hard not to put the employee in the middle of situations that should be worked out between the managers. This includes interpersonal disputes as well as prioritization of assignments. The more managers you have the more conflicting messages you can get as an employee. Make sure you are not pushing your own agenda as a manager.

Conflicts: When conflicts occur, and they will, it is imperative not to put the employee in the middle or expect them to work things out for you. Bring everyone together in the same place — in a conference room or on the same email chain if in person is not possible and discuss the conflict. Enlist everyone in the problem solving and push for transparency. Ask your managers for advice on how to handle the disagreement, because they will be more likely to see the challenges from your point of view. Never put the employee in the middle.

Recognition: Make sure everyone gives the employee positive recognition for a job well done. Let them know you understand the difficulty of the situation and appreciate their hard work.

It means stepping up to the plate and being accountable for your decisions while understanding where everyone else is coming from. With a little planning and open communication, you can make the best of the situation and keep your employee happy.