Christopher Global

There's going to be a time when you need to learn how to manage up. While we all hope that we'll get a leader who is transparent, dependable, and supportive of employees, it'll take not much longer than a few seconds for you to brainstorm a person you would call a deflective leader. A deflective leader is a leader that won't agree to take personal responsibility to support you or the project, regardless of the request. There's no action on the leader. Somehow it always ends up an action on you (as the requestor) to go and address the issue yourself.

I recall having a deflective leader. The leader was responsible for cross-functional processes and coordination supporting product delivery. When attempting to coordinate my releases with other teams, I would ask who is responsible for platform release communication as that information was critical to plan releases proactively. That leader's name was released. When I approached that leader with the feedback, their initial reaction was, "Okay, great, so now you can lead the team in that communication." The next thing I knew, I quickly became the new point of contact for platform release communication. I had five extra meetings on my calendar. Each time a new gap in communication was discovered by our cross-functional counterparts, I would ask who owned and distributed this communication in the past. The person in that (the leader's role) was always the point of contact. Each week at our weekly team meeting, I would add a new topic to the agenda, and the leader would assign the responsibility to me or someone else on the team.

This is a deflector. Even if it's their job, it's not their job. They constantly deflect responsibility and delegate unless it's something they want to do. From a project management perspective, be very cautious of this leader. First, they can quickly become a roadblock to your success. You'll need to investigate areas where the communication is weak and ensure you understand how that applies to your project. Don't accept any new roles and responsibilities on behalf of the deflector. Kindly ask the facilitator to add the topic to your meeting agenda frequently. Second, know how lacking relevant information or an optimal process introduces risk to project product delivery. Articulate these risks calmly with supporting data. It's easy to get frustrated here, but your best answer is to work through the process. Third, reinforce that vocal is not the same as volunteer. Nothing changes when you are not vocal, but being vocal doesn't mean you are volunteering. Process improvement starts with identification. The objective is not to manage the roles and responsibilities of your leadership or peers but to gain support in the areas that can make you most successful. And fourth, if this process is not producing results, you will need management support or to evaluate if the objective is worth the cause before you become overly frustrated or labeled as a problem.