I have a dream job that I always aspired to and I have worked for the past eight years of my career life to get it. Not only do I have my dream role, but my department head is the best mentor anyone could wish for - really, no sarcasm intended.
One of the reasons to bring me in was to introduce new ways of doing things, especially at the top and middle layers. But now, after 10 months I started the job, I still have problems with another senior manager who does not seem to (or want to) accept the new ways of doing things I am trying to set up. Let's call this senior manager Mr. Bono.
Mr. Bono has been with this organization for more than three years. He and his 10-member team are professional and very good at their jobs.
We got on fine to begin with, but things started to go downhill when I tried to implement changes. Not only did he resist them, but rather than doing so constructively, he resorted to backstabbing and spying (yep, you heard me right) on my manager and other department managers.
Even our mutual boss (we both report to the same person) have given up trying to deal with him. He has been told to back off several times but he mutely does not, and continues to battle me.
From where I come from, I am used to differences among middle managers but never I have seen someone behave so aggressively even senior managers cannot do anything to cover me. I have tried talking to Mr. Bono at lunch or drinks but he is a two-faced person who only shows his dark side behind my back.
Strangely, all other department managers adapted and even embraced the new way of doing things.
All this has made me wonder:
- Is it my own lack of management skills that cause Mr. Bono to behave like this?
- By not taking action against Mr. Bono, is senior management tacitly supporting the resistence?
- Do my senior managers lack the skills to manage Mr. Bono?
- Am I in the wrong place? Is it time to call it quits and move on?
- Should I continue to implement the new way of doing things and just try to ignore Mr. Bono?
- Should I start backstabbing Mr. Bono and give him a taste of his own medicine?
