How to play well when co-managing a team at work

Have you ever watched two toddlers play together, sharing their toys in perfect harmony and agreement over whose turn it is to smash the mini firetruck into the wall?

Probably not…for the simple reason that if you’ve been around any toddler between the age of the “terrible twos” going on the terrible forevers, you know that whole harmony and agreement thing does not happen…

Neither does it exist between office walls when it comes to co-leardership or co-management of anything. No matter how many cups of strong espresso ingested, or daily zen meditations downloaded on your favorite podcasting stations, the fact is, having multiple bosses around one single project (and being one of them) is most often the perfect recipe for professional disaster…

I remember the last time I co-managed a project in Big Corporate. It also happened to be my first time managing a project at all. And while sharing the burden with another manager appeared to help at first, it ended up providing me with the largest, most consistent headaches I had ever experienced in my career. In addition to significantly upping my caffeine consumption and disastrously boosting the project’s budget…

And the poor staff on the project, treated like gentle lambs taken to the slaughterhouse, except every manager on the job had their own road map to the slaughterhouse and their own ideas as to how to get there….Think misguided directions, excessive meetings, and a general confusion all around…You get the drift…

After not so effectively experiencing the joys (not) of co-managing a project though, what was left (thankfully, something was left), were a few strategic moves to use in co-leading situations at work:

1. Have a coordination plan! I am not the most coordinated of people, so if you see me walking down the street, beware! Well, the same kind of applies to co-leading projects at work. Without effective coordination, any project is doomed from the start. I remember one staff on a project I was co-managing buy myself and the other manager on the job, coffee at the end of the project just because she was so happy she no longer had to work with us. So meet ahead of time with your co-leaders, and establish a plan of action. Coordinate all the project demands, scheduling, tasks and responsibilities ahead of time. Meet on a regular basis to discuss progress and agree on the main points, before relaying any information or directions to the team.
2. Not everything is due yesterday! The biggest challenge when co-managing at work is to coordinate everyone’s priorities. While the other manager on the job wanted their part of the project done yesterday, I also felt mine should be accomplished following the same deadline. The end result? Major confusion and frustration, in addition to a team positively wishing you miss a step and break a leg.
3. Lay off the stress factor! Ok, I admit, there are days I literally wanted to tell my co-manager where to go. And I bet there were days when our staff wanted to tell us where to go…Acknowledge that co-leading a project can be extremely stressful, and a burden on the leaders as well as on the team. Check in on each other, and on the team as well. Be aware of the amount of work and responsibilities everyone carries, and let each team member have a say in the work.

It’s not like we are still toddlers and can’t share our toys at work, or is it?

What challenges have you faced when co-leading a team?

With Love,

The corporate Sis.