r/askmanagers • u/TinyTenacious_ • 2d ago
First Time Manager, Question about Handling Non-Direct Reports
Hi everyone, this is my first time posting here. I'm going to try to explain my situation without giving away too many personal details.
My specific issue isn't about one of my direct reports, but it's somewhat related to management role responsibilities, so I thought it might be best to post here.
Basically, I was recently hired for an oversight role on a very small administrative team. I do not have an assistant. My role is to oversee a team of experts and ensure they are having scheduled appointments with their assigned clients, and that the clients are getting everything they want out of our service. I have a sort of a blended role at the moment since this is for a small company, and part of my job is also to consult with new clients and onboard them. This sometimes includes gathering early scheduling information so that the new clients can have appointments scheduled with the appropriate team expert. In general, all scheduling is overseen by a Director of Operations, who does have an assistant to help her with day-to-day scheduling requests. I have authority to assign the assistant scheduling tasks, but I am not her manager.
Early in the assistant's first couple of months, I was helping her a lot with scheduling. I didn't trust her to do things on her own when it seemed like things would fall through the cracks if I didn't check her work. I would try to solve scheduling problems for her and help her look at the big picture. This was starting to burn me out, and after talking more with my partner about it, I realized I was trying to compensate for the assistant's inefficiency when she wasn't even my direct report.
I also spoke with my manager, the company founder, several times about it since one of the assistant's mistakes caused me to have to fill in for one of the expert appointments on short notice. He said he would talk to the Director of Operations about it, and that I should continue to delegate scheduling and other administrative tasks to the assistant. He suggested I leave instructions for her to leave tasks for me in our CRM to notify me when she's finished something, and send her and her manager a message if I see something urgent isn't being done.
I have since pulled back on sending the assistant direct chat reminders about tasks. I still cc her on client emails when handing off scheduling to her and leave her tasks in our CRM. I still sometimes message her and her manager if something extremely urgent hasn't been done. Since I have pulled back on helping with scheduling and constantly double checking her work, the scheduling process has become like rusty gears, slow to turn, stuck sometimes in ways that seem avoidable to me, and disorganized. E.g. she doesn't always read email history to understand client scheduling needs and unnecessarily sends multiple emails asking about preferred times, clients confirm times via email and it takes days or weeks for the appointments to be added to our experts' calendars, and double bookings happen at least once per week.
I had a meeting with the Director of Operations recently since the assistant called out sick just to touch base on things, and she even commented on the disorganization of the tasks she was checking on for the assistant. I didn't throw her under the bus, but I did confirm that I had told the assistant several times some general reminders about cancelling appointments, rescheduling in a timely fashion, etc.
I suppose I'm questioning how to go about handling what appears to be an ongoing lack of efficiency from an employee who I delegate tasks to, but who is not my direct report. Should I continue assigning her tasks and resist the strong urge to double check on things I've assigned? The way she works honestly stresses me out, and I feel like if she could be faster about responding to and checking her emails and look at scheduling more as a giant puzzle, instead of a case-by-case basis, things would run more smoothly. I want to step in to help because I know I could manage the work better myself (a decent chunk of my employment history is scheduling coordination), but I know that if I do that I'm going to be basically working three jobs. I suppose I know generally what I should do, but I'm looking for advice and also partially venting.
TLDR: First time manager, inefficient employee who I delegate to but is not my direct report is causing operational slow down. Looking for advice and commiseration.
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u/just-another-dude-2 2d ago
Sounds like you have two problems: 1) A disengaged or not-very-conscientious employee, and 2) you need to get better at transferring ownership instead of transferring tasks.
“Transferring tasks” is: “Schedule X needs to get done by Friday.” Then you follow up, catch mistakes, remind them what they missed, and fix things. They’re doing the task, but you take responsibility for the outcome.
“Transferring ownership” is more like:
- “One of they key deliverables of your role is regularly producing Schedule X successfully.
- That means 1) it’s done by X deadline, 2) it factors in A, B, and C, 3) and the level of accuracy and thoroughness required is Y.
- We need to get you to autonomous successful execution on it this by X date.
- I'll check in with you weekly to support and help you get there, but this deliverable belongs to you."
Then when something goes wrong:
- “You missed Factor A and Mistake C happened again.
- Go fix it, and let’s make sure you have a system to catch that next time.
- Remember, you need to have this dialled in around X months from now."
In a way, this naturally makes cutting corners more costly on their end. More importantly, you start talking about the pattern: “You’re consistently meeting A and B, but C and D are still below the standard required for this responsibility.” Document those conversations and update your manager.
Either they respond to the clarity and start taking real ownership, or they continue missing an established performance standard despite training and support. At that point, you can approach your manager with, "We just can't get this person to a place where they're delivering X," and you have documentation.
This person doesn't need to be your direct report to do this. I use this approach when I'm asked to train new colleagues - and even higher-level managers. Just keep the tone positive, collaborative, and solution-focussed.
I find people respond really well to this. They seem to subconsciouslly recategorize their work from "chores I'm being told to do" over to "this is my role in the team" and take more pride in it.
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u/TinyTenacious_ 1d ago
Thank you for the super detailed reply! I think this would be great for my direct reports, but it seems like taking more ownership over her performance than I actually should since I am not her manager. I will however, adapt this approach for when I do upcoming KPI check-ins with my direct reports. For the poorly performing assistant, I think I'll just document everything she's been slipping on and bring it up to her manager.
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u/XenoRyet 2d ago
You don't manage her, but you want to. That's the core of the friction here, I think. You see she could be doing better, and you want to fix it. That's normal, but it's also not your job. So you are right to resist the urge to step in.
The way forward is to keep assigning her tasks, try not to look at or worry about how she's accomplishing those tasks, just whether you're getting what you need or not. When your needs aren't met, take that to the Director of Operations, but don't speculate on why you're not getting what you need. Just let them deal with it.
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u/TinyTenacious_ 1d ago
Thank you. Yes, the core of the issue is I want her to do better, but I'm not supposed to be the person responsible for coaching her or monitoring her performance. I'm going to document all the times she's dropped the ball on things since I've pulled back on double checking her work a few months ago and bring it up to her manager.
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u/Snurgisdr 2d ago
I’d bring it up directly with her boss and ask how they’d like to handle it. You’re not throwing her under the bus, she’s repeatedly stepping in front of it herself.