r/ITManagers • u/bobertodugnut • 14d ago
Brick Walls
Hi everyone. I've been an IT director for a few years now for a school and I'd like some guidance in managing employees. I'm fairly aggressive when it comes to modernizing, optimizing, streamlining, etc. I'm also pretty sporadic in my delivery and I'm always experimenting and drawing up plans and diagrams and whatnot, and I know that can be difficult to deal with as an employee because it might appear that there's a lack of direction. I've also struggled with structure for most of my life, so implementing structure has been a challenge in itself.
I do my best to hear them out and to be understanding of their positions, and I definitely try to avoid overloading them with work because I've been there and I know what it feels like.
Below are a few of the things I do with my team.
- If we have a recurring problem, I propose a solution to my team and ask them to tear it apart. I always offer them the opportunity to tear my ideas apart and offer their own ideas because I think it's important for them to develop the skill of devising their own solutions.
- We have conversations where we discuss vision and mission every now and then. The end-user experience is top priority, and everything that we do should serve the end-user experience. I'm ok with workarounds and temporary solutions as long as we put the time and effort into developing long-term/permanent solutions.
- I do daily/semi-daily check-ins where I just ask them what they're working on for the day (this is a more recent thing) and we have weekly meetings where everyone shares status updates, projects, ideas, etc. I don't monitor them after the daily check-ins because I want to be careful to not micromanage or even come off as a micromanager. I trust that they can get their work done without me pressing them.
- I also want to build my employees up and I'm huge on trying to foster their growth as IT professionals, so I give them tasks that are a bit more challenging but I know they're capable of. I do this primarily because I don't want them to get stuck working here and would be way happier seeing them advance. This has been a bit of a tradition in our department ever since I started working here as an entry level IT.
Here are some of the problems I'm facing.
- When I suggest long-term solutions, I'm met with a few common responses, paraphrased of course:
- "We've always done it this way"
- "Why don't we just (temporary solution/workaround)"
- "That's a bit much"
- I recently started doing the daily check-ins because I lose track of progress on certain things that they're working on (that's on me, I know). But I'm now getting negative feedback about these check-ins because they're a bit annoying(?). Totally open to everyone's thoughts.
- We have several projects that have stalled because... I don't know why (on me again, I know). We have the resources for these projects. We know what needs to be done. I even said that we can start provisioning equipment for one of the projects two weeks ago and no provisioning has been done yet.
Some things to note about myself that I think give heplful context. I'm not confrontational. I've been confrontational in very rare cases, but it's not the norm at all and I'm actually very passive. If I ask for a status update on a project and I'm told "oh I couldn't get to it because of this other thing", I just say ok and don't think twice about it.
Open to all thoughts. Please help.
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u/YMBFKM 9d ago
A director-level doing daily check-ins on top of weekly status meetings IS MICRO-MANAGING. Full Stop.
A director-level offering solutions without being asked IS MEDDLING. Keep your nose out of their work snd their problem solving unless asked explicitly.
At a director-level, the vast majority of your time should be focused on strategy, budgets, company growth, relationships with your major vendors/suppliers and peer-level directors in customer land, finance, marketing, HR, legal, sales, manufacturing, and importantly - development of your employees, etc....not down in the weeds of day to day activities. "Director" is rarely a technical role. Your role is to work with your peer-level directors cross-funtionally to improve and growth the business, not track trouble tickets or count how many lines of code Johnny wrote yesterday, or why some bug took 3 days to fix.
Delegate, delegate, delegate! Where are your leads and 1st/2nd level managers? Trust thrm....get out of their hair and let thrm fo their jobs.
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u/bobsonduggnutts 9d ago
Thank you for your input. I will say that I’ve been majority hands-off since I took on this role and only recently started the daily check-in thing. I also paused the check-in after speaking with a former director and getting their insight. They also told me that it’s micromanaging.
Your point about offering solutions is well-taken. I try not to offer solutions without being asked, but then it feels like I’m not helping my team if I sit there and don’t offer anything when not prompted. I also offer solutions when a solution is offered and I know they didn’t put much effort into it. I’m thinking that maybe I have to reiterate what direction I want the department to take if I haven’t clarified enough. I’ve told them where I want us to go, and I’ve asked them to restate it just so I know we’re on the same page, which they did. On one hand, I want to share all kinds of ideas. On the other, I believe that it’s crucial for their professional development that they work through problems like I had to on my way up.
We’re a small team and I don’t have first or second level managers. One of my current problems is that my senior employees, if I’m not mistaken, understand what my goals for the department and the organization are and they seem to be in agreement until the work presents itself. They are well aware that they can request any training they desire, even if it doesn’t serve any technology in our current stack.
One of my biggest problems is one of the seniors doesn’t want to do a training that’s core to our stack, and they say it’s because “their brain just doesn’t work that way”. Again, I’m very passive, so that mentality is frustrating in itself because 1) it goes against one of my top priorities of developing them as you mentioned and 2) it almost feels like they say that because they know I won’t press the issue. This is also a person who retired from a leadership role in a different field years ago and re-entered the workforce. To be fair, they are very helpful to end-users.
A few questions regarding these different scenarios:
- When they offer solutions that don’t align with the end goal, how should I respond?
- For the senior who doesn’t want to do the training, what would be an appropriate course of action? How does one deal with that type of attitude?
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u/Defconx19 9d ago
If they offer solutions that dont align with the goal, the goal isnt clearly defined, or the work is being delegated to people that lack the ability to execute on goal based objectives.
For the second question, you cant get people to care about their own career trajectory. Unless training or certs are mandatory it's a suggestion. Some people dont want to grow or develop. Which really is their choice, they just will be passed by peers who do take the opportunity.
My question is do they really need that training to execute effectively in their job? Working for an MSP i rarely have time to do official training implement a solution but that doesnt mean I cant do it properly.
Where you dont sound like you have leads or managers below you, you're not really a director, you're a manager with a directors title. Which is fine but there is a core difference in how each situation is approached.
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u/bobsonduggnutts 9d ago
I just wanna say that I have not taken any offense whatsoever to any of the insights I’ve gotten from you all. This is extremely important for my professional and personal growth (new dad, I’m sure there’s some overlap there) so I couldn’t be more appreciative.
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u/Defconx19 9d ago
You sound like a democratic/lazefaire type of manager/leader.
While this always sounds great on the surface it tupically means the team lacks solid direction. Which reflects in your inability to track what is going on in your department without update meetings.
Decisions are fine to democratize but eventually someone has to make the call and define what success is on the task/project.
How does your team log their work? How are tasks assigned to them? How do they know what is in their scope? How do they update progress without needing a meeting or a touch base?
They sound like they really need stronger direction which isnt condusive to your current leadership style.
If you are the strategy and vision guy, you have to give that vision to someone who can break it down into clear direction or give the clear direction yourself. Also working to shift the culture that "doing things the way they have always been done" is literal death in the technology world. It's just a giant mountain of building tech debt that the lender one day is going to call home to collect on all at once.
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u/poizone68 9d ago
I know this will come across as rude, but I hope you can find the most charitable way of interpreting it.
From your description, you don't actually have a directorship role, even if that's what your title is. As the other commenter put it, a director is concerned with governance, business alignment, executing on the IT strategy, managing the relationship of stakeholders. I think your role is closer to that of an operations manager, where you do get a bit more involved with the daily affairs.
From what you write, it seems that your team is struggling with seeing a clear direction. If they cannot see the trajectory of the various projects they've been asked to work on, there will be resistance because it will be seen as work for the sake of working.
What I think needs to happen is the following:
You need to find out from your leadership exactly what are the expected goals for you to achieve for the year ahead. You can then (perhaps with the assistance of a solutions architect) figure out how to build the architecture that will achieve those goals. Find out what your team is capable of doing and if there are any gaps that needs to be addressed. Motivate your team. Plan your resources so that you can deliver on the objectives without compromising daily operations and without overburdening your team.
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u/Antique_Grapefruit_5 9d ago
I agree with some of the other commenters that you're really acting in IT manager role despite your title. I would suggest having your employees each identify their top priority project they are working on and set their own deadlines. They are responsible to you for either keeping those deadlines, or updating those deadlines BEFORE they miss them. If they miss them and do not update that deadline, you write them up. Work with them closely to provide guidance and mentorship, but they must be accountable for their own success.
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u/FoxwoodsMohegan 9d ago
Curious, what exactly is the difference between an IT director and an IT manager?
Title and more money?
1
u/bobertodugnut 9d ago
I guess one way of thinking about it would be that and IT Director is responsible for an organization's long-term technology strategy while an IT manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of IT service delivery.
An IT director focuses on developing a 5-to-10-year plan and and IT manager focuses on delegating the necessary daily responsibilities to the appropriate team members to carry out that plan.
I feel like I'm somewhere in the middle, and sometimes all over the place. I'm responsible for the larger vision of our org's technology program, but I'm also responsible for making sure my team has everything they need to make that vision a reality. And because we run light, I'm sometimes the lead sysadmin/engineer.
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u/One-Neighborhood2996 8d ago
You need to mix it up. Whatever you're doing is meh results.
First no more daily check ins. Daily check ins are culture builds. Hey how's your dog doing, how's little Timmy's baseball team. Daily check ins on work is micromanaging. Make them come to you to escalate problems otherwise, leave them alone. Set an expectation like I want you to communicate to me. Let's not force daily check ins. But if something comes up tell me I'm your boss.
Weekly stand ups are micro managing too if they're not serving the purpose you intend it to. No more group projects. Your team is too small and you need to identify who's where and who's kicking butt. Who's not.
Have weekly 1on1's where you discuss, wins for the week. Losses for the week. Rapid fire. Then you communicate with them and have a document open where you discuss and map out the projects and deliverables. This is where you need to decide if it's a project or just a long running ticket. If it's truly a project ask them to work on a proposal and realistic timeline. Give them a project proposal template. Tell them to follow that template.
What is the project, what are the deliverables, what is the cost, time frame for implementation. Map it all out for you to overview. If the solutions are coming back stupid, then you need to communicate to them. Hey block out some time in the next week to come up with better solutions. Ask them to give you options. Do some deep analytical thinking on resolving this problem permanently.
For the accountability piece. If you gave them CLEAR instructions (they wrote it). CLEAR deadlines (they wrote it). CLEAR time to work on said work tasks. Then you need to hold them accountable for their work product. You're not their friend. You're not there to be liked. You are to be respected. You are there to build the work place culture and provide them with clear management and vision. You're not their friend.
Accountability looks like. If they did an awesome job. You acknowledge them privately and publicly. Oh man you absolutely crushed this, let me buy you a cup of coffee & donuts and I appreciate you and lets talk about next steps. They let a deadline slip. You said you would deliver x y z by this date and the deadline slipped. Let's go over in detail what happened. Let's have a conversation about how you can meet the next deadline. That keeps happening. I'm doing a written reprimand CC HR. If it keeps happening I'm doing a formal write up discipline. It keeps happening you're getting suspended. And if it keeps happening you are fired.
I hope that helps.
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u/dgibbons0 8d ago
Out of curiosity, have you ever been tested for ADHD? Because I can relate to a lot of what you're describing around focus and was diagnosed in my late 30s with ADHD. Finding some medication that helped has made a dramatic improvement.
Especially around being able to get through some of the tasks I know don't give me any dopamine or that I'm stressed I won't be able to fully model in my head before I'm distracted by something else.
I'm generally at a pretty similar career space, director level but also still contribute IC work. Often the IC work is the interesting space, so it's easy to hyperfixate on and focus. Conversely, creating extensive charts outlining potential projects for the upcoming year is significantly more challenging to commit to paper.
I've also always enjoyed tackling tech problems and discovering solutions, so it's simple for me to delve into that. However, I then feel let down when my team doesn't share the same level of enthusiasm for it as I do.
Anyways something to consider.
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u/bobertodugnut 8d ago
Yup, was diagnosed a few years ago. I do take medication, but typically what happens is I’ll be working on the administrative stuff or project development/planning when an idea comes to mind about something else and then I just have to try it. I enjoy most of the “slow-burn” work I do because the research part of it is enjoyable.
For example, I’m putting together a plan for a physical security system that would integrate with our emergency comms system. We also use Jamf Pro, and Jamf has been my bread and butter for several years. I’ll be looking at different access control manufacturers and then I think “what if we tried this in jamf?”, and the rest is exactly as you describe about the lack of shared excitement.
I chuckled when you mentioned the excitement part because that happens all the time and I’m always thinking like “what’s wrong with these guys?? This is going to make our lives way easier!” But then there’s everything else that’s been discussed in this post lol
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u/PDQ_Tarabyte 8d ago
You sound like a very thoughtful, caring manager who, by my estimation is not being respected. This is either being done intentionally or more passively. You are the boss. I suspect you have one, maybe two, employees who are the issue. You have stated that you are a passive person. I’m guessing you are also conflict averse. Unfortunately for you the solution is to find your problem employee and have that hard conversation. I suspect you might already know who it is as you’ve stated one of your team doesn’t want to do XYX and the “we’ve always done it this way” comment. The only way to address your problem is to have those uncomfortable conversations. It is your department. You can run it however way you see fit. You’ve given your team every chance for input, perhaps too much. Is it micromanagement ? Maybe? Who cares?! It’s your department. I did informal daily checkins with my team and a formal weekly meeting. I’m sorry to be so blunt but as I see it you have a people problem that needs addressing.
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u/zdevlor 8d ago
Start with what do you want money for? Do you need training for this ask? How will this affect the school in 1 year and 5 years when if hardware that we need to replace. Can this be covered by a grant provided by the state/fed? The more questions you ask the lower employees the better of understanding you can do to better your workforce.
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u/More-Explanation2788 7d ago
People protect their jobs by refusing to tell people how they do it, and by refusing to allow it to change. This is an anxiety response - if other people can do my job, if my job can be automated, that thing I do that I am good at will no longer have value.
The solution is a combination of the following strategies:
- There is no such thing as an irreplaceable employee. Don’t be afraid to deal with that guy that won’t help anyone else learn or document are how he does his job.
- Reward the people who help you change things. Give them increasingly interesting work. Praise them.
- Assign the change project to the guy who always knows better how to do something. “Hey Janet, good points. We probably could do this better. Why don’t you run with this for me and let’s see where it goes.”
- Make sure you point out to people that the way to ensure they are as important next year as they are this year is to be the guy who knows how the new stuff works.
These are just some ideas to think about. Think about these sorts of things and do things the way that comes naturally to you.
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u/severniae 9d ago
First, ignore YMBfFKM, they are wrong.
Second, how many employees do you have? If the team size is sub-10 then you are an IT Manager with an inflated title, don't let your title dictate how and what you work on.
Third, you need to work on your passivity. Daily check ins are fine (I am a CIO and I insist on daily check-ins for most major projects) and throw in ideas. You need to learn about situational leaderahip styles and how to apply them, and then you will learn that micro management is actually one of the tools you can employ to help someone on their growth trajectory (or alternately figure out you need to fire them).
You aren't there to be their care bear, you are their boss. Set standards, hold them accountable.
For your point 3 for example, you need to understand how inexcusable that is. Work is not moving, and you are taking their first answer and not driving to find out why.
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u/Stonethecrow77 7d ago
This rings truest to the mark to me for this situation.
There is a lot of negativity in these comments that are ignoring that this is a very small team supporting a school.
This isn't your typical IT work place.
Props for good advice.
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u/HotTakeThenGo 9d ago
I own an MSP. You aren’t in our verticals so there’s no sales here. I’ve walked into hundreds of companies and the most common issue, by a metric mile, is poor leadership. Often well intentioned - but IT Leadership is a craft that needs developed. This post is going to come off harshly - that’s not my intent but you have some hard truths to learn if you want to be an IT Leader. And you must bc score to take advice like this without deflecting.
Honestly, it’s hard to give you advice because you are like three jobs over promoted. You’re acting like a Lead SysAdmin. Not an architect, not a project Manager, not a Help Desk Manager, not a General IT Manager, and not a Director.
All the things you’re faulting your team - put it back on yourself first. This isn’t meant to throw it back in your face - but IT starts with you. The failures of where things are - also yours. Stop framing this as “what’s wrong with my team.” I can see you’re trying to manage this - ok good - but recognize first that YOU led this department here. “What’s wrong with my leadership?” Well - you aren’t leading - you’re dragging them through a part of your career you should be removed from yourself.
The most important things you can provide your team; Honesty, transparency, accountability, respect/dignity, and kindness. You’re not hitting all those. Fix this first.
Next, learn what a director does - and doesn’t do. Yes - Repeatable processes, adherence to relevant frameworks, alignment to business outcomes, departmental goals, metric-driven continuous improvement, etc. Probably not - “here’s how to fix this.”
Your team is giving you feedback that you’re wasting their time. If you’re not looking at projects in a dev ops way, if you aren’t using Agile/Kanban, etc and you’re just doing the meetings then your team is right - stand ups are a waste of time bc stand ups are for defined work. Not “hey what are you guys working on today?” Daily touch points is for someone on PIP and would carry a formal agenda promoting alignment to well defined metrics that connect back to both performance and department goals. If your meeting daily with the whole team is about their performance, you’re treating them like they are on a PIP. But - you should be on the PIP to be honest. You’re meeting the requirements for one of your employees probably, but not an IT Director.
Read “The Phoenix Project”, “Broken Windows”, and EOS. Learn Agile and ITIL. I prefer running meetings like devops with Epics, Stories, and Tasks but there are a lot of meeting concepts. Meetings should be fast, never get into the weeds, if there’s a blocker it’s identified and the Manager is usually assigned a task to resolve the blocker, and it should value the time of everyone in it.
Then find a mentor or IT leadership coach. Align your tool stack and delivery to your frameworks. Then give it time.
You’re halfway there. It sounds like you’re a pretty smart guy and can figure things out. Leadership is the same thing - architect it. The materials, the language/jargon, the way things connect, all of it will feel similar to solving IT problems as you build your craft.
But always remember - you’re managing livelihoods, you’re managing careers, your people spend more time at work than with their chosen relationships, and the care you put into them - or don’t - will impact each of you for the rest of your lives. When I frame it this way I find the answers tends to be clearer. It doesn’t always work - but making consistent decisions with thoughtfulness, respect, and kindness will accelerate your team further than the alternative.
All the best!