Managing Sideways
Have you ever had to oversee a project when you didn’t have the authority over the staff members? What do you do? Where do you start?
We call that managing sideways because while you have been asked to make something happen through others, you haven’t been given the authority to direct their work.
This can be frustrating but also can be effective if you approach your work with the right attitude, set clear outcomes and consider the following:
Determine what your involvement will be. Are you an advisor, part of the team, or leading the team?
What do you know about the staff you will be working with? What is their skill level?
What constraints exist, such as deadlines and resources?
How will you set milestones and track progress?
How will you determine success?
When you find your self in a sideways management situation, be aware that you may find it uncomfortable to manage peers. Be as transparent as possible to avoid problems going forward.
Managing sideways isn’t a lot like your normal role as a manager. One of your key roles as a manager is to delegate the work so that you are guiding more than directing or to put it another way to guide more and do less.
When you are setting expectations, ask these questions:
Who should be involved?
What does success look like?
When is the project due?
Where can staff members go for resources?
Why does this work matter?
What will your involvement be?
Effective delegation
If it hasn’t already become obvious, managing sideways is all about delegation. The most common way that managers fail at delegation is by not staying engaged throughout the project. Coming in at the end and asking when the project will be finished is definitely not enough. Managers need to set and honor milestones so that if issues arise, there is time to correct them before the due date.
Some of the ways to stay engaged, in addition to setting and monitoring milestones, are to create outlines and timelines for each portion of the project.
Finishing the project
When the project is completed, you will likely have to present a final report. Develop presentation materials and actually rehearse.
In preparing the report, take the time to review and reflect on the results.
What lessons were learned?
What went well?
How could the work have been accomplished in a different way?
· What accountabilities need to be addressed?
Unfortunately, this step is frequently overlooked and that is a shame. Taking the time to debrief what was learned throughout the project can make a major impact on your team and your results. Make doing a lessons-learned debrief part of your culture and see the impact it can make.
In future blogs, we will continue to dissect the topic of delegation so stay tuned. In the meantime, be sure to check out The Manager’s Answer Book. We discuss delegation in the section entitled “Developing Your Management Skills” and have a section devoted to “Managing Up, Down and Around.”