How do I be a better manager? Am I the issue?
Reaching out to the brains trust, and sorry, it’s a bit of a long one!
I am an EL 1 who supervises one APS 5 staff member in a generally small team - without going into too much detail our team is meant to be high performing and fast paced, there’s a lot of work to do and we’re all constantly being pulled in 100 different directions at once. Personally, this type of environment really suits me and my working style.
I feel like I am really struggling with the staff member that reports to me - realistically the role should be at least a 6 and I feel like they are definitely not performing at that level, and quite frankly I don’t even think they’re a high performing 5. I am clear with my instructions and regularly check in, and feel like they do okay with very simple tasks, but we can have a conversation about implementing a process one week (which I of course seek feedback on to ensure collaboration and that it’s fit for purpose), they agree and say it’s a good idea, and then by the next week it all goes out the window. I can’t trust them to take ownership of anything strategic, and need to double check everything they’ve done to ensure it’s correct.
As mentioned above I do check in regularly, and I seek feedback from the staff member to query whether there’s areas that they would like more support in but I am constantly told no and that they’re doing fine. It’s getting to a point where I don’t know what to do - my own workload is almost unmanageable by the end of the week because I spend so much time having to make sure things have been done correctly and following up when they, for the millionth time, aren’t.
I have no interest in making anyone’s life a misery and don’t want to be seen as nasty, but what would you do? I feel like maybe my standards are too high because when I was a 5, and then a 6, I was incredibly autonomous and consistently achieved outcomes. I’m unsure how I support someone who just doesn’t seem to have that in them?