Promoted your best engineer to manager and it’s not going that well? What to do next

If you’re an owner or MD of a UK engineering or tech business, you might recognise this. You promoted your best engineer to manage a team, and it hasn’t worked out the way you hoped. He’s not really managing the people in the right way, and you’re not getting all of the work done by that team to the standards or deadlines you need. Or if you are, it’s needing too much input from you.

In most cases it’s fixable. He needs to know exactly what his job is now. He needs someone to show him how to have the conversations he’s been avoiding. And you need to be able to stop answering the questions his team should be taking to him, knowing that he’s going to deal with it well.

When this is happening, here’s what MDs tell me:

“He’s very technically able, but in hindsight he’s not the best manager.”

“He wants to manage his team well and he’s willing to try different things, but the advice I give him about how to do it isn’t making much difference.”

“He doesn’t like having difficult conversations, so problems drag on too long.”

“When it comes to doing this management job, I’m having to spoon-feed him a lot of the time.”

You may be pleased to hear that most of the time, the manager is perfectly capable. It’s just that managing people is a different job to the one he was trained for. He’s a first-time manager, so he does what he thinks will be best, and it’s not working in the way that either of you need it to.

The hardest part is usually the conversations. Telling someone their work isn’t good enough without them getting their back up. Pulling up a subcontractor who’s done it his own way for twenty years. Raising the same problem a second time without it sounding like a telling-off.

So he either tries to deal with it and riles the person up, or he avoids it altogether. He redoes the drawing rather than send it back, or mentions it once on site and then drops hints. Things carry on, and in the end you have to get involved.

How to manage a manager who used to be your best engineer

There are a few things that make a real difference, and you can start on them this week.

Be really clear with him about what his job is now. Which decisions are his to make, what you expect him to sort out without coming to you, and how much of his week should go on managing rather than engineering. It usually needs to be clearer than you think. What’s obvious to you often isn’t to him, especially when it’s all new.

Have regular one-to-ones with him about how he’s managing, separate from the project updates. How his team are doing, what he’s putting off, and what he’s going to do about it before you next speak. If every conversation you have with him is about the technical work, that’s what he’ll keep putting first.

Help him delegate properly. A lot of engineers find it hard, because it’s quicker to do it themselves. But while he’s still doing the work, nobody’s managing it. Agree what he’s going to hand over, to whom, and how he’ll check it’s been understood.

Pick one conversation he’s been avoiding and talk it through with him first: what he’ll say, and how he’ll say it so it doesn’t rile the person up. Then let him have it, and ask how it went.

When his team come to you with something that’s his, send them back to him. Each time you answer for him, they learn that going round him works.

And ask him whether he’s enjoying the job. Some engineers really like managing once they know how. Some don’t, and that’s fine. It’s better to find that out together.

Where I come in

You can’t always be the one to help him with it, especially when you’re the person he reports to. That’s where one-to-one coaching for new managers helps. It’s often easier to talk openly to someone outside the business.

Each programme is built around the person and what your business needs. It starts with a conversation with you about the issues and what you’d like to see instead, then a separate, confidential conversation with your manager. I bring the two together to form an agenda. Then I meet with him fortnightly over three months, working on live issues and challenges, so improvements start within weeks, not months. And there’s no need to send him on a time-consuming management course that doesn’t change much.

More about Leadership Coaching, and why technical managers find the move to leadership hard.

Questions MDs ask

Is he underperforming, or does he just not know how to manage?

Usually the second. If he’s working hard and cares about the team, and the results still aren’t there, it’s normally because he doesn’t know how to do the management side yet. That can be learned.

Should I move him back to an engineering role?

Sometimes that’s the right answer. But most new managers haven’t had a fair chance yet. Give him that first, then decide together.

What should a first-time manager learn first?

How to have the conversations he’s been avoiding, how to delegate, and how to run a one-to-one that’s about the person, not just a run-through of the tasks and technical work.

How long before I see a difference?

With practical help on real situations, most people notice a difference within a few weeks.

If this sounds like someone in your business, I’m happy to talk it through.

Leanne