How do I turn around a department when I have to work with the person responsible for the mess?

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Bemused Boss: On my first day as the new department chairman, half my management team were shocked, and the others had no idea who I was! And it gets worse. My first meeting with the department superintendent – my deputy – went as swimmingly as drowning in a bathtub.

She was civil, but I could tell she had resentment towards me. I then met the rest of my management team that day. I asked them for their honest appraisal of the department, and there were three kinds of answers. Some seemed suspicious and avoided answering my questions. Others performed verbal acrobatics trying to be diplomatic. And a few unloaded their frustrations.

Honestly, I probably would’ve thought twice about taking the job if the senior management had been honest with me about why I was really brought on. It seems the company was unhappy with the superintendent, who had managed the department ineffectively for many years. But rather than firing her, they decided to create a new position above her to be her boss – more or less taking over from her.

I’ve taken over from incompetent leaders before, but never while having to work closely with them. I suspect the senior leadership were hoping that either she’d resign, or I’d fire her myself if I couldn’t reform her.

What’s your take?

Code-R: You didn’t get what you were expecting, but at least you can’t say your new job is boring! What’s more, if the senior leadership were willing to withhold critical information from you, then you know that they will eventually be just as “entertaining” for your blood pressure as the hot mess of a department you’ve just been flung into.

All joking aside, this could be a wonderful opportunity for you to really challenge yourself and grow. But for the sake of your sanity, play it smart. Your deputy may resist working with you, and likely wants to see you fail. Your wider management team will likely respond to this transition with confusion or exasperation. And the rest of the department will either run around like headless chickens or bury their heads in the sand.

So don’t rush to make any changes, as tempting as that may be. First get to know everyone on your team and study their strengths and weaknesses. Learn the different workflows, reporting lines, projects, and relationships. Think of it like a live bomb. Unless you completely understand every single part, you cannot disarm it without the whole thing blowing up in your face.

With all the chaos the department is in, you need to bring order. But make sure your understanding is in order before you start tinkering. Set yourself an overall one-year transition plan, with reasonable short, medium, and long term milestones. Make sure each goal is clear, achievable, and quantifiable.

Then discuss similar transition plans with each of your team. Make sure they each have some input into your plans for their role, and be willing to listen, and adapt some of their suggestions. You will have to work with your deputy the closest. Be patient, and try to incorporate, update or take as inspiration any of her ideas that do work rather than completely replacing her systems.

The ultimate key is timing. You need to give everyone time to adapt, but a clear timeframe to do it in. Achievable timelines allow for gradual changes to smooth a leadership transition, but still inevitably lead to an overall orderly transformation in the long term. This helps secure the buy-in of your team and better deliver sustainable long-term results.

code-R

An independent non-profit project created to support the self-actualisation of those in their 20s and 30s, and even beyond.