April 2006

Q: One thing that stumps me is how to manage a process but not the people. For instance, I coordinate all Web activities, but I manage no people. The Web activities involve people from many departments and management levels, but no one reports to me or even to my boss. So I struggle with getting a handle on how to motivate, discipline, advise, and educate people who have no written reason to listen to me. I am still responsible for the outcome, even if I cannot control the variables (the nice phrase for people). What would you suggest?

A: The real problem in a situation like this is that your priorities aren't the same as your teams'. They don't share your failures, or your rewards. They have their own problems and issues and priority items, and if they can push you off with no repercussions, your projects drop down the to-do list with the speed of a sinking stone. And there's really only so often you can call this up as a functional complaint, sending your boss – or her boss – in to fight with their bosses for you. If they don't buy in to your project, you lose.

So how can you get them to buy in? Well, you can't always control the negative consequences, but you might be able to swing some incentives their way. Not money, most likely, but most of us really don't really work for money alone. We work for personal satisfaction. We work because we understand and enjoy the work we're doing. We work because we like and respect the people we're working with. We work because it meshes with our own agendas and furthers our personal goals.

Some of these things you can control on behalf of your resources. One good initial step is to build in more face-to-face or teambuilding time. Make some of these meetings social. Take your group of resources out to lunch, or otherwise try to find a way to make them a rewarding break from the regular routine. Ask about what your team members are doing, and how they're doing. Find out what their jobs and even personal goals are. In whatever way, try to build a team that feels some excitement about the project, and that interacts and responds to each other. If they feel co-responsible to each other it will take some of the burden off of you.

The next step is to think about ways to reward success. This can be very tricky on a slim-to-none budget, but if you think creatively, you can find ways. Some folks will work for t-shirts, others for certificates they can display, still others for acclaim, favors, bragging rights, and the list goes on and on. Whatever you do, don't forget the face-to-face time – if you aren't in front of people, you can be assured that their regularly scheduled urgent priorities are overtaking the items you need them to do. Sometimes visiting people and having a driving sense of friendly enthusiasm will simply be the best tool you have.

In the end, a very large part of any manager's work is figuring out how to make your people work most effectively for you. In this instance you don't pick them, pay them, or discipline them – but you can still find incentives to make them want to do their best for you.

Q: Well, actually, I'm not a manager, but what do you do when your manager doesn't really manage you that well – that is, how can you manage your manager? I Googled the term "managing up," but that only seemed to apply to middle managers on how they can manage their bosses. What about us peons?

A: Managing up is managing up, and it's a good skill to be familiar with. Managing anybody – up, down, over to the side – largely comprises

1. figuring out how to clearly and effectively communicate what you need them to do,
2. figuring out how to get them what they need to do what you need done, and
3. convincing them to actually do these things.

So what do you need your manager to do? And how can you set it up so that it's as easy as possible for him to do it?

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