Cheers Whisk. Yeah very familiar with GDPR but was illuminating that very few of us were aware of the ease in which a SAR can be enacted.
My redundancy settlement contract explicitly forbid me to invoke a SAR.
Legal or not, I took the cash anyway and smiled all the way to the bank. 
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Yeah, I think that’s normal in a compromise agreement. The trick is to use the threat of the SAR to pump up the payout before signing the agreement 
I couldn’t pump it up but I did remind my old Mgr that I hadn’t signed anything up to that point and was considering my SAR options.
I wasnt in the office when I made that call but my mate was. He called me later and said ‘What the fuck did you just say to him?’ 
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To which, if i was the employee, i would ask for any feedback in writing and, if not forthcoming, i would write to clarify the feedback…
(But i note the wider context of your post about communications with significant others)
Agreed. Ongoing communication and feedback with the employee is fine in writing/e-mail. I was talking more about conversations about an employee that might be going on in the background.
Stuff that you wouldn’t want the employee to see/hear directly and you wouldn’t want to see in an employment tribunal.
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That’s slightly alarming by today’s standards…if it is not constructive, would that not make it an inappropriate conversation?
Lots of great points on this thread. I’ve enjoyed reading through it. Linked slightly to the comment made by @buzz is something my current employer has developed as part of our training as middle leaders and a process I have found of great benefit has been developing my ability to have coaching conversations with the people I line manage. There’s quite a bit on the tinterweb regarding this and my conversations and performance appraisal meetings have been more positive and had greater impact as a result.
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Here are my thoughts
Lead by example, however, this doesn’t mean working 80 hour weeks and expecting others to follow, it means working a normal day and not working weekends and setting the expectation that others to do the same. I see so many bulshit managers who work stupid hours, even if they don’t expect their teams to do the same, it comes accross very badly. Of course there are times when you have to go above and beyond and put in extra hours, your team will know this and most will pull their weight
I find that hardest, and sometimes the most important aspect of managing people is dealing with other people’s personal issues. It is important that you don’t outsource this to HR. Recently, in the middle of lockdown I spent a lot of time talking to a person whose brother had contracted Lukemia. As their boss they felt more comfortable talking to me about some aspects than they did with their friends or family. In other times I have had to deal with a team member developing a serious drinking issue (and then claiming it was a mental illness), a person who had become so obese that it impacted his ability to come to work, a person who was conned out of their life savings in a “relationship scam”.
I often run with a junior person on my team. If I am in the office I always try to have lunch with people on my team, I never have lunch at my desk. In a normal summer, we try to have a drink on Thurday evening after work
Next one is a bit tricky, however, I do share my thoughts about the company leadership and strategy, I never undermine the company strategy and message. I may disagree with the strategy, but who is to say I am right? what I know for certain is that if people actively resist change, then progress is never going to be made. All the time, I see very senior function heads, actively mobilising their direct employees to undermine the company strategy, and this is not acceptable.
When I go into a confidential meetiing, like and EC meeting, I have a formal debrief with my team, and share what I am able to, I probably give a few extra insights and ask team members not to share, but I am also careful not to give out any information which shouldn’t be shared.
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Thanks Matt, that’s really useful. 
I think the personal issue stuff is the bit I struggle with. I am bouyed by the fact that the org has a really comprehensive management and mentoring program. T
The other good thing is that this is Gov, so extra hours are logged and taken as holiday but there is a limit of 20hrs p/m, so it doesn’t matter what my expectation is, they won’t do more than that and I won’t need to ask them but of course, peaks and troughs will have to managed.
I am at the highest level that still gets this in their contract also, so it means I can manage expectations from my manager. (how that works in reality remains to be seen).
Good tips on the de-brief stuff.
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Just thought I’d do a quick update here. I have done all my meet n greet pre start calls and they all went well. Mostly were with my peers, one with my boss and one with the person that will be my ‘mentor’,who is in Finance.
Good news is that the two teams within my DR remit are pretty autonomous and will be ‘light touch for me’, particularly one half. Also, it’s been made clear that nobody is expecting me to come in and immediately take the reins of these teams, there will be a transition.
The other good news is that when describing the working environment I’ve come from and my knowledge of how digital tools work in the procurement/contract mgt space, it’s clear that nothing like that exists currently. So that means I’m not playing catch up with my technical knowledge and can contribute to that transformation.
Also clarified work/life expectations with my Mgr and that went really well and my peers confirmed a very flexible environment. Nobody in my team went for my job, so that’s a relief! Feeling better about things now.
I know there was some recommended reading earlier in the thread but we are off to town today and I’m going into Waterstones to see if I can find a management book to read on hols (along with ‘Born to Run’). Any recommendations that are likely to be on the shelf?
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The 5 dysfunctions of a team by Lencioni is worth reading.
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Thanks, looks good will pick up a copy of that.
I read a leadership book once, it was written by a well known person who at the time had a good reputation, but then became a pastiche of themselves and then a joke.
Anyway it was Leadership by Rudi Gulliani. An interesting book and some good ideas, although it’s very much his view and not based on any researched methods.
I did a Udemy course on leadership once. It easnt bad. Nothing revolutionary. Maslov etc.
I was told to read Sun Tzu the Art of War. It’s a bit cheesy to try and apply to modern environments but some of the stuff can be adapted. You just have to think beyond what he is actually saying a adjust it to modern environments.
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Well there wasn’t much of a selection, so I bought:
One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard
and
No Bullsh*t Leadership by Chris Hurst.
It will pass the time. (along with reading Born to Run)
Yeah I preferred The Prince, Machiavelli. Its a tough read though, be prepared.
I have a copy of that. Just never got round to reading it.
Just prepping some interview questions for Tuesday. It seems we have had loads of good management advice on this thread. I’m about to delve into the word of line management for the first time myself. Have successfully avoided it and stayed technical for the past 10 years! Though it’ll only be one person for now, i imagine that may well grow over time, assuming i don’t c0ck it right up! 
Anyone have any classic questions i could potentially use? Obviously they’ll have to be on the generic side of things as opposed to job specific.
Somethng not crazy difficult, but that might get the candidates thinjking a little laterally?
Don’t you guys use the Gov ‘Success Profiles’ process?
Please don’t use strengths and weaknesses’ it’s bloody inane.
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never heard of that (we’re not gov) and no, i’ve never used (and will never use) S&W as a question!
edit - just looked it up. Man that is SO civil service it’s unreal!!
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