I've a direct, who's a manager, who will sometimes relay things to me as "people are saying XYZ" - generally relating to some aspect of my leadership or initiatives I've implemented that "people" (i.e. one or more of their reports, my steps) don't agree with.
The things "people" are reported as not agreeing with seem to correspond with things my direct doesn't agree with. So I've concerns about how representative the views expressed are.
I'm really keen to respect the opinions of members of my team and to modify things in light of them wherever practicable but it's difficult to know how to take these anonymous, indirect and I suspect filtered comments.
Any suggestions? (e.g. O3's with steps to try to find out what they really think - but wouldn't that undermine the manager?)
Get to a source if you can
I see similar things in my work, in a different context. I work at the corporate office of a retail company. I'm the web guy.
A customer might have a problem with something on the web, and they'll call a store. The store tells their district manager "customers have a problem with this thing," and the district manager says "stores are reporting problems with this thing"... and soon one phone call sounds like a widespread problem. When I go look at the data, I may see this problem has happened only twice in six months.
Find a source if you can -- "people are saying XYZ" may mean one person said something vaguely like XYZ. Perhaps some sort of skip-level meetings would be in order? I think there's a cast for that...
flexiblefine
Houston, Texas, USA
DiSC: 1476
Secondhand information is second class information
John,
I think you are correct to question the motives and purpose of your direct in relating what other people are saying, especially where what that direct is reporting coincides with personal disagreement with your policies. Flexiblefine has the right idea; find a source. You can do this without undermining your direct and doing O3's with your skips. This is something you need to avoid doing but simply talking with them will give you a better idea if what they are thinking.
They may not be open with you but pay attention to their body language and hesitations is answering questions. You also need to factor in how much your policies cause them work they were not doing before you came along. People tend to find problems with new policies when it causes them to do more or different work than they did before. Change is never easy and I have found people resist change simply to resist change. Some of that is inherent in my DISC profile. I have to be careful not to trod on toes when introducing something new. Could this be part of the problem?
Without a better source for information, you are allowing your direct to dictate your initiatives and leadership style. The information your direct is giving is secondhand and therefore hearsay. There is a reason hearsay is not permissible as evidence in U.S. courts: It is not reliable. I try very hard to never react to secondhand information.
In my job, I have only two directs for the vast majority of the time. My directs grow to upwards of 30 for a period of time as the project I am managing comes to the execution phase and then it drops back to normal. Many of my temporary directs I know little about until they come on board but I do frequently get information about them through the grapevine, often negative in nature. This information I put into a compartment in my mind. Something to be looked for but never used in managing that person until they prove the warning true. In reality, secondhand information is no better than a rumor.
I am a high D so my natural inclination would be to question your direct and get better information. I would want to know more details. What exactly is the issue with initiative X? How many people are complaining about it? How reasonable are their arguments? What exactly are their arguments? If your direct does not have crisp answers to these questions not supported by your skips behaviors, I would take it as a sign your direct is trying to manage you.
Ed Zaun
DISC Profile 7-3-1-2