What if the “drongo manager” fails to respond?
These recommended approaches involve interaction with the “drongo” manager himself, but what if those efforts on your part to help the manager see how his behaviour and performance could be improved are rebuffed, either because the manager can’t or won’t see, or is unable to bring about the necessary change? What can you then do? This is a difficult situation to be in and the next approaches I want to discuss are quite serious.
If you have tried the approaches I have mentioned and they either have not been well received or just aren’t working, the other possibility is that when there is a meeting between staff and this manager, the staff may need to get together beforehand to agree on a united front on the matter and then raise it in the meeting with the manager. Now this brings up very, very serious and difficult ethical issues, in that it is most important that the manager’s rights are also respected. It requires staff to be quite assertive, rather than aggressive, or it can be viewed unfavourably as a “ganging up” by them.
If it is felt that the manager’s rights can be taken care of, then this approach is useful. If not, then you may have to resort to the use of a facilitator to handle the process. This is where an organisational counsellor might be useful.
Another, equally risky, approach is to actually go over the manager’s head and see their manager. This is just as serious and just as dangerous as the previous approach. Going over a person’s head means that you have to go to their manager to honestly and directly discuss the issues and problems of working with this manager. There are two ways of doing this. Firstly, you can say to the manager beforehand that you are going to see his boss about his behaviours which have been previously discussed with him and which have not changed. This is the preferred way. However, it may be necessary or you may feel that you would rather just go and see the manager’s boss without prior discussion with the manager. This is not my preferred way of dealing with the matter; however, realistically, this way may be unavoidable when things are becoming too difficult in the workplace.
Once you walk into the office of the manager’s manager to discuss the manager’s behaviour, it is likely that you will initially receive a negative or ‘cool’ reaction from that individual. The manager’s manager is likely to say to you: “go and sort it out with your manager”. If you receive a reaction like that, it is most important that you say to that individual that you have already had quite a number of discussions with the manager to no avail, and that the manager is not listening to you. This is why we emphasise having discussions with your manager prior to any further approach. If the manager’s manager sees that you have made various approaches and attempts to work the problem out, he or she then will feel more willing to speak to the manager and work out a process for dealing with the issue.
The process the manager’s manager may take is as follows, which is useful to remember, especially if you are placed in the situation of that person. He/she could speak to all the staff involved individually, as well as speak to the manager. It is probably preferable to speak to the manager first about what you or the ‘boss’ are going to do, what your process will be. Next, speak to all the staff and then speak to the manager again about the issues raised by staff. It is likely that the manager will respond in a defensive, or even aggressive, way. However, it is important to do this ‘counselling’ on a one-to-one basis. Following this, it may be useful to then have a meeting with all the staff and the manager, together with the manager’s manager, to try to resolve or manage the perceived differences and conflict. An organisational counsellor or another external party can be used to assist in the facilitation of this meeting if necessary.
Another possibility for approaching the ‘drongo manager’ somewhat less directly is to talk to his colleagues. I don’t recommend that you speak to colleagues about such matters because:
1. it breaks confidentiality,
2. it can be quite insulting to that manager, and
3. it spreads the confidential nature of the conflict relationship across the organisation and can actually spread the conflict itself.
The end result is that it can make things worse rather than better for all parties.
While I don’t recommend a broad based discussion with the “drongo” manager’s colleagues, there may be some value in a direct approach to a particular colleague who you believe does have a sufficiently robust relationship with that manager to be able to convey honestly issues which that intermediary is convinced of. This honest connection means that issues are kept at this level and there is no need to go higher or to spread the issue outside a particular work area. This ensures that, to some extent, confidentiality is maintained, which is also respectful to the manager and of his rights as well, which always need to be thought about in any intervention of this type. Usually this colleague will have had some inkling that something was wrong anyway, and it could be that your discussions with this colleague may be the catalyst needed to propel this person to discuss it with the manager concerned. As you know, being aware of the existence of a problem is the first step towards solving it.
Should you leave?
If all else fails and your attempts and interventions do not work, you may eventually be feeling stressed, uncomfortable or unhappy about what is happening. The net result is that you will become unhappy about working in the organisation and consequently, it could be that you need to make the decision to leave. This is the ultimate step that you can take. The issue here is that if you do not resolve or manage the conflict and if you were to leave earlier, it would be ‘running away’ from the issue or problem. It is best to “have a go” to confront it and if things absolutely do not work out, you will feel satisfied that you have tried, you have done your best, there is nothing more you can do; you can therefore leave the organisation with a very clear conscience and a confidence that you were as strong and as powerful as you could be.
What if YOU are the “drongo” manager!
Heaven forbid, but what if, on reflection, you decide that you fall into the category of “drongo” manager yourself? What steps can you take to improve you own behaviour, performance and relationships?
• Be observant of your own behaviour. One of the things you need to do is to take note of your behaviour day by day. Spend time at the end of the day reflecting on what has happened in your interactions during the day.
• Look at your outputs, how you make a difference – both to the organisation and your staff. Also ask yourself what you get out of your work.
• Look at your fears – what are your biggest fears in being the manager of that particular area?
• Look at whether you hold back, and how, in expressing your thoughts and feelings to others.
• How honest are you in your appraisals of staff. How honest, or how able to be honest, are your staff with you in their appraisals of you? Do you even allow or do you have in place a system whereby staff can carry out an appraisal of you? If not, why not? Perhaps you should.
The “drongo” manager is, unfortunately, an all too common phenomenon in organisations. Their continued existence is coming under increasing threat as organisations restructure and downsize. There are fewer hiding places. In any event, there is no place for such a manager in any organisation!
