Ask HN: Advice wanted – director distrusting of our team?
The director has a reasonably strong background in a specialty we're hiring for. We haven't put dedicated effort into this specialty, and only two of us (me and a staff-level teammate) have a background in this specialty. This specialty is a strong focus of the director, even to the point of excluding other very important areas of work.
We've been interviewing candidates, targeting those with this specialty. My interview is dedicated to assessing candidates' facility and depth with this specialty. I'm sensing what seems like some amount of distrust from the director about me and my team's capability to hire good candidates for this specialty.
In one case, my team did an interview loop with a candidate and decided to approve. The director wanted to meet with the candidate individually after the fact to assess whether they would indeed be a good fit, rather than as a "sales" call when an offer is extended.
In another case, the director second-guessed an internal candidate whom my manager and I fully supported joining the team; in this case, the director didn't interview the internal candidate, but had expressed skepticism about their suitability for the team, despite our strong support, and background (though not especially recent) in this specialty.
This is happening again in a third case -- a candidate passes the loop, but the director wants to meet to do at least some amount of assessment.
Is the director distrusting of the team (and hence of me in particular)? I've met with him a few times, and he's insistent about some pieces of work (prematurely, I think -- there's still a good amount of fact-finding to do before deciding on what, and when, to work on different options). I get the feeling he thinks our team isn't great at this, since it hasn't been urgent and prioritized before.
Are there interpretations I could be missing here? Could this be just a matter of style, that the director (~4 teams, ~30 reports, though growing) wants to be very hands-on with hiring, even ~mid-level candidates? If the director's doing any kind of assessment of the suitability of candidates after the loop, I'd have to assume the director would find it feasible to veto a candidate, even having a full loop approving.
If the director probably is distrusting, then besides delivering on this specialty myself, any ways I can earn the director's trust? I plan on delivering wins in this area myself, though I can't guarantee I can commit enough heads-down time to this; and my director and I so far haven't really seen eye to eye on approaches to tackling this.
Thoughts, comments, experiences welcome. Thanks.
Since I don't know you, nor your director I can't judge your relative competencies, especially in the area of your specialty (which would be better if it were actually named). All I can go by is this and your prior submissions.
It appears that the "director" is at least two levels above you in the organization structure. So whether you like it or not, his decisions are going to override yours. That's by virtue of the corporate pecking order.
I also get the impression that you harbor some resentment towards this director. Perhaps you are upset that the director who hired you has been fired with no notice. Perhaps that is an indication that further up the management hierarchy things are even less to your liking. It is also possible that your expertise level in your specialty exceeds that of your director. But he is obviously viewed in a better light than you by the top levels of management.
In one of your previous submissions you mention that you are trapped by 6x share value increase. So if the vesting is such that leaving in the near future is not an option, then your best option is to stop fighting. Try to understand where your director is coming from and instead of confronting, seek out ways to work together until such time you can afford to quit. You don't need to be right all the time. Just keep your exit horizon in sight and until then smile and be a good little team player.
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Once you have some wins and build trust you can collaborate more on future projects.
The director has a responsibility to implement his vision that's why they hired him. That will be make or break for his success. Your team is responsible for implementing his vision with some collaboration along the way of course but directors have the autonomy to guide their ship.