Bosstrack Connections

Hi Lisa! First of all, I want to say that I’m sorry that your leadership isn’t being more transparent with you. It can put you in a tough situation as someone in middle management.

Here’s how I would want a leader on my team to handle this situation…

Transparency is always important with your team. While I don’t believe there’s such a thing as too much transparency, you do need to balance your response with respect for your leaders.

With transparency, you tell your people the truth – and when you don’t know, you tell them you don’t know. When you’re asked to specifically not disclose something, you say you’re not able to disclose the information.

When you tell your team member that you need to change her position back to what it was before, you can tell her that you received the guidance from your superiors, but you’re not sure yet the reasoning behind the change. That’s the truth. Be direct but empathetic to her feelings. Mention that you’re disappointed in the decision, and advise her that you’re going to continue to try to understand the reasoning for the change and look to identify what opportunities are available to modify her responsibilities (if that’s what you plan to do).

I think this is all you really can do given that (1) it’s all you know about the situation and (2) until your leadership is prepared to discuss their actions with you and open up discussion, you can’t really override the direction you’ve been given by them.

Hope this helps! Happy to continue to engage on this if it doesn’t answer your question or you need further advice!!

Good luck!!