Clockwork orange

Can see up, but can never get there?

In your everyday work, do you find any problems managing your team (or subordinates) due to a certain gap between you and them?

When I say “gap”, I don’t mean so much as age but more of competency, skills, experience level. Sometimes, we may find that our team members have a “bar” above them, where they can only perform up to a certain level no matter how we train and coach them.

Perhaps it is due to their IQ or background that they can only grasp concepts up to a certain level, or their own attitude/perception towards greater responsibility that makes their career path come to a halt at a certain point.

Some clerks, for instance, are content to be just clerks, doing the same old job year in year out. They work hard, comply with timelines, are punctual and well-behaved. They perform exactly as per their JD, nothing more, nothing less. You love them because they are so reliable, but when crisis hits your department, would they even be able to understand the magnanimity let alone support you through it all?

You can’t blame them, after all they’re doing what they’re hired for. But we wish they could be, well, a little more ….useful.

Of course if you work for a rich company then you can plug the gap by recruiting another staff who is more competent and experienced. But otherwise, how do you cope?

For me personally, I find that some of the problems which can arise in this situation are:-

• It will cause a long term burnout for the manager because he/she has no support from below and no deputisation when he/she is out of the office come to the office (roughly speaking, he/she will die standing)
• There will be communication issues between the manager and the subordinates
• The dept cannot grow because the subordinates cannot move up
• It will be difficult to carry out special projects or implement new concepts because the subordinates have no experience/skills to function as part of the project team as it’s not their “level”; end up the manager will have to run the show himself/herself alone (or not be able to carry out any new changes at all)

It could also be a bad thing for the staff because the manager may find them hopeless and unable to support the dept objectives, so either they will eventually leave with bad grace or be sacked.

But then again, their replacements will still be those of similar level because the company’s budget does not allow the hiring of a higher and more expensive executive. So we are back to square one (not that we ever budged in the first place).

So, how? Cannot be trained, cannot move up, cannot function laterally…is it really a dead-end situation, or is there any hope?

(This post is just an invitation for discussion amongst fellow practitioners and those who are keen to contribute to the topic. It has nothing to do with my personal experience.)