My manager (who is also the Director of Engineering) is either in a meeting with peers or superiors, or has his face buried in his computer all day long. The only time his staff sees him is at weekly group lunches or the weekly staff meetings. He does absolutely nothing to reach out to his direct reports. I've never worked with a more inaccessible or distant manager.
There are signs of major problems within the engineering team, and I'm afraid things are going to come to a head soon. I know the Director is having some personal (family) issues, and I don't want to increase the stress level he must be dealing with right now.
Can you suggest a good way to break the ice, and perhaps draw him out of his shell?
-- Alienated Cubicle Dweller
Sometimes managers get so wrapped up in what's happening to them - personal stuff, pressure from their own management, special projects, etc. - that they forget that the real job of a manager is to manage people. While we all have the expectation that our managers will always notice what we're doing and where their departments are headed, it doesn't always happen that way.
It's good that you're ready to take action. The first thing to do is schedule some time with your manager. Start with a half hour and see where you get. After the first meeting, try to schedule one on a recurring basis - half an hour isn't enough of a time block for it to be a problem. Be prepared with an agenda (although you don't have to send it to him in advance, or even show it to him). I'd recommend picking your top two concerns to talk about during the meetings. If you're seeing signs of major problems in your team, it seems like this is a shoe-in for one of those top two concerns. The trick is not to dump problems in his lap - no one likes that. Think it through. Let him know what you're seeing and offer some solutions, or at least your help. If you've been mulling the problem over and aren't able to come up with any solutions, let him know what actions you've thought about and why you discarded those ideas. That makes it more of a working session, less of a bitch session. This meeting is also a good time to let him know what you've been doing with your own work.
If you're not having a regular department meeting (at least every two weeks), suggest it. Organize it, even. This will help your manager pull out of his shell a bit and look around him. It doesn't have to be a big, high-stress thing - bring in pizza and have everyone talk about what they're doing and where they need help. This might help your manager take some cues to become more involved. At the least, it will probably get people in the department to talk about what they need and get some help from other department members. The food is actually important - people relax and talk things through when there's food involved, especially something they can eat without paying much attention to it. As for the manager, it's hard to remain distant and inaccessible when you're munching on pizza talking with folks. Not only that, take some notes during the meeting and send them out to everyone - it will help the manager remember what's going on in his group.
So, the key things in this kind of situation:
Good Luck!
--Ms. M