When you manage others who don’t report to you: 11 tips for success
Many of us have direct reports where we have a formal manager - employee relationship in place. As a manager, we have an expectation that we are working with our teams to strive for optimal performance, develop them in areas of need, talk to them about career paths, set goals with them and measure success.
When you have responsibility for a program or project, you may have people on the team working with you but they don’t report to you. You still have an expectation of success and you need others to help you reach that expectation. How do you deliver feedback, motivate and hold accountable someone who may be your peer or is on “your team” but reports to someone else?
This can be one of the most challenging roles to be in — one where you have enormous responsibility but maybe not as much authority. Or, you are in a position where you need to influence or even “manage” your peers on a project. This can feel uncomfortable and awkward at times but it doesn’t have to.
One of my biggest career successes involved steering a very senior group of people to resolve conflict, make some key decisions as a group and figure out a concrete implementation plan. Not only did these people not report to me, they were much more senior to me. I found listening to be the top skill needed along with knowing when to nudge and when to pause. Allowing them to air grievances became an important part of the process along with revisiting our objectives and keep it focused and fact based.
Early in my career, most of my projects involved cross-functional teams getting the work done and, rarely, did any of the team members report to me. Leading and motivating others can be rewarding but you need to do this with a few ingredients - focus, respect, trust and maybe even a little empathy. Incorporating these 11 things in my work helped me reach measurable success. Note: Some of these are very similar to good project management tips. This is not a coincidence!
Set goals and objectives. A project team needs a North Star to follow — a reason for coming together. This is even more critical when you are leading a group of people not in your chain of command. Use the goals and objectives to drive the work, work assignments and status meetings. This gives the team a reason to work with you, listen to you and follow your direction. You are motivating and guiding the group to achieve this common goal.
Allow for opinions to be voiced. Most people have opinions. Some have stronger opinions than others. In order to gain trust, let people speak their minds. For people to feel like a team, there must be a safe place to express thoughts and feelings. As a leader, you need to create a space to do this. People will also support what they create; so, allowing them to provide input on the direction is key to getting their buy-in and giving them a reason to work with you.
Know when to cut off and bring together. The flip side to allowing people to be heard is knowing when to cut off the “input” and steer people to a direction or decision. This is a tough skill to teach. In some respects, you know it when you know it. However, I used to have 20-minute rule where I would give the group 20 minutes to express thoughts and we used 10 minutes to come to a decision. Some decisions may be consensus but some may be compromise. There is a difference. I will expound on this in next’s week blog. But, setting a time limit, can keep people on track.
Document, document, document. My biggest ally in a situation where I am leading a group of peers is documentation. Memories are a funny thing. We can convince ourselves to the death that something happened a certain way or a specific decision was reached and not everyone will remember it the same way. Bringing a group together to work effectively relies on having good facts and documentation. I tend to document key points and even attribute them to who said them along with decisions and, not to be forgotten, why we made the decision. Documenting decisions alone without context doesn’t help. Context can help jog accurate memories.
Allow everyone a piece of the pie. Be sure that everyone has a role in the project. Don’t hoard the work; this will only create bad feelings. Most people want to work, add value and demonstrate their capabilities. Give them that opportunity. Set up work streams and allow others to take the lead on certain facets of a project. This will also help people feel like you are all working together.
Let the work speak for itself. Holding a peer or even someone senior to you accountable can be awkward. However, deadlines are the easiest and most fact-based way to hold someone accountable. It will be very clear if someone isn’t pulling their weight or isn’t providing quality work based on status update meetings. You may not even really need to hold someone accountable if it is evident to the group that someone is not fulfilling their duties. Again, it is hard to argue with documentation so keep it updated and let it do the “talking”.
Hold check-ins. To hold accountable, you must have regular check-ins or status meetings. Review the major milestones and ask for updates. Ask for issues or stumbling blocks. If there are issues, ask someone else to solve them or provide an opinion. One of the best ways to manage others who don’t report to you is to act more like a facilitator than a manager. You are the traffic cop of work, tasks, ideas, problems, solutions. They look to you for direction but not necessarily to do the work.
Ask how they think it went. If you ask people directly how they think it is going, what is holding them back, what is helping us, etc., oftentimes, they will have an answer. You don’t have to give explicit feedback. Most times, I find adults come up with their own coaching and feedback if asked. Most people know what is not working or how they may be able to do better. Actually, this is good advice even if someone does report to you. You don’t have to have all the answers but you do need to know some of the questions.
Ask for feedback about yourself. A bit of the Golden Rule — this rule applies in this context. Ask for feedback about how you are running the project, how else can you help them, how else can they contribute. The act of asking for feedback should open up some channels for them to give feedback about themselves. It is amazing how many times results come back to us if we model the behavior ourselves.
Debrief. I have written about this before but closing a project and never debriefing can be a waste of an opportunity. This is another venue for the team to voice their opinions, provide feedback to you, other team members and themselves. Like check-in meetings, you are the facilitator providing the venue to give people a voice.
Have a sponsor. Some people have come to me over the years saying that even if they do all of the above, they still struggle with a certain person that is supposed to be contributing but, for whatever reason, doesn’t. And, this person only listens to his manager or some higher in the hierarchy. Unfortunately, this can happen. Because of this, and many other reasons, you always need a sponsor of the effort you are working on. The sponsor shouldn’t just be a name on the page. This person should be senior, invested in the outcome and play the tiebreaker if the team can’t come to a decision, or even assert a little more authority should someone need that. Keeping the sponsor updated regularly will help you have someone in your corner.
Managing people who don’t report to you is a common occurrence today. Some organizations are moving away from traditional hierarchies and embracing more of a pod or team concept. As such, you maybe leading a project and the staff helping report to someone else. Your job is to facilitate, guide, let the work hold them accountable but escalate when necessary. This doesn’t have to be awkward; it can be a successful way to get things done, ensure teams are diverse in thought and perspectives and be efficient getting the right people together to think of a problem holistically instead of being within a single group.