What is managing sideways other than maintaining good relations with your peer group?
It seems simple, but many people have difficulty dealing with their peers. Salespeople aren’t happy when Production can’t perform to meet customers’ needs. Accounting has difficulty getting sound budget figures from Sales. Human Resources can’t get anyone to carry out the performance appraisals on time.
One of the reasons for such difficulties extends back to organization structure. Organizations often operate in a “silo” format. Management is up and down with little interest or understanding of issues that occur in other functional areas.
In today’s oft-understaffed organizations, managers are stretched to manage the people that report to them and to successfully address the issues that are seen to be in their functional area. They have little or no time to discern what is going on in other functional areas.
However, they must at least interact with other areas, and often waste time following up with other departments on what has happened to a project, or a job or an estimate, etc. Sometimes the delay is due to lack of communication, sometimes it is because the proper process was not followed, sometimes it is because the other department was annoyed at a perceived prior slight and they are not going to help out. Such snafus could be mitigated or even eliminated if managers worked at managing sideways.
Communication
When dealing with another department, determine the instructions they need in order for them to provide in the easiest and most efficient way the support or service that you as a manager require.
Find out if your current forms or instructions are sufficient for successful and timely completion of the assignment. The same form or communication vehicle could have been in place for a long period of time, but that does not necessarily mean that it provides all the information required to carry out a task expeditiously.
Ensure that information is correct when it is sent from your department. Incomplete or incorrect information is a terrible time waster for the department that is expected to provide the service.
Learning about how your peer departments operate can assist in the communication process.
Cooperation
Helping a peer department out when they are in need can pay dividends in the future.
In the first place it may save your peer from looking incompetent, which will certainly dispose him or her favourably towards you at a time when you require reciprocation.
Secondly, helping a peer who is in trouble is helping the organization as a whole. When one part of an organization fails in the eyes of the customer, the whole organization has failed and is incompetent.
Finally, cooperating with a peer and providing assistance when needed and asked for brands you as being a big picture person and a team player, two attributes that senior management generally value. Another perception of the manager who cooperates is that she thinks beyond her own “turf” and is interested in the overall success of the organization.
Self Development
Managing your relations with your peer group gives you insights into areas that are not your area of specialty. It provides you with additional knowledge, which then allows you to intelligently participate in company-wide discussions.
Exhibiting intra-company knowledge places you in the front of mind when your organization is looking to promote someone. Understanding many areas of the company can take you out of the sales/HR/production/accounting pigeonhole and reposition you as a Renaissance man, capable of improving any area of the company to which you are assigned.
Aside from the benefits mentioned above, acquiring knowledge in different areas contributes to your self development, which is important for individuals with career growth aspirations.
Caveat
When managing sideways, it is important to ensure that your actions are not misinterpreted. You should not interfere in another manager’s area of responsibility, or take on tasks that are not your own.
When developing relations with a person in another section or department it is essential that your actions do not jeopardize the relationship that your peer has with her boss. Inviting managerial jealousy of your inter-departmental relationships will undo the good that managing sideways can potentially create.
Fred Pamenter
PPBDconsulting@aol.com
