Leadership in organisations – is mine non-existent?

I manage a small team that is responsible for a number of CRM instances in our organisation. We are a new team and most of us haven’t been trained, nor have any certifications for the CRM. We have 2 contractors whose contracts are ending in January.
Our organisation is going through a significant re-organisation due to financial difficulties, but the refreshed strategy puts the CRM as being a crucial part of an improved service for customers and that its use should grow.

This is re-assuring, but the news of this didn’t come from any of my managers, it was noticed by one of my team members in an all staff email.
Am I justified in thinking that the lack of consultation / involvement between the organisational strategy makers and my team just stinks of bad leadership? Even my boss wasn’t aware of it.

Or do I just dry my eyes, put my big boy pants on and lap up the challenge?

Honestly, a bit of both.

If your team is core to something that is now core, you should probably have been in the loop for it, unless the strategic leadership of your area was in the loop and reporting upwards. Bad on their part though, a good leader would have at least mentioned the change.

But…

Dry those eyes cupcake, it’s time to pull on your big-boy pants and show the business what it means to be “the daddy” of CRM.

When does anyone get told about new strategy / direction?

The team being made redundant want to know first and be consulted.

The team with more responsibility should have been consulted and know earlier.

Those facing customers needed to know early so they can plan the customer process.

The HR team needed to know because they cover every team.

The facilities managers needed speaking to because they allocate the resources for a changing team.

(etc)

Sometimes there’s a place to announce it, then work through the ‘how the heck do we do this”….

Hmmm. Apart from the emphasis on CRM does it change configuration or use? If not, it’s probably seen in the same way as heat, light and power – a utility, like most IT. In which case, it probably never entered the heads of the honchos that there was anything for you to worry about or do differently.

Or… Hanlon’s razor…

@matt_outandabout has it. Sounds like they have bigger things to worry about – as far as they’re concerned they’ve spun up a new team to deal with this, move onto the next thing? It’s up to you now to make sure you’re credited with taking responsibility and making the tools stick in the new strategy.

Also, I’d just be happy to be left alone to get on with it. It’s a good sign that you aren’t seen as a problem that needs managing.

it’s probably seen in the same way as heat, light and power – a utility, like most IT. In which case, it probably never entered the heads of the honchos that there was anything for you to worry about or do differently

Probably this – when I was in that area we’d often find out about some new initiative that was due to go live next week where the creative types had gone to town on the concept and front end but had somehow forgotten about all the work that needs to happen to enable it, or even think properly about the legislative side of data capture and processing. “Oh we thought all that just happened in the background” was one stand out reaction when we told them they wouldn’t be launching for at least 6 weeks until us geeks had done our geek work.

Im not even sure what  CRM is in this context.  But it sounds like horrible management all round.

Still, on the bright side, its an opportunity to find out if YOUR leadseship is good , as you’ll need to lead your team..

If not, it’s probably seen in the same way as heat, light and power – a utility, like most IT. In which case, it probably never entered the heads of the honchos that there was anything for you to worry about or do differently.

This x 1000

I work in a similar role and often changes arrive with us with and expectation of next day delivery.

There is definitely a role for closer engagement with business users to find out these things up front rather than waiting to be told

Also the world would be a better place if people thought a bit more RACI.

Having had a few recent conversations with mates who work in both public and private sectors, I’m not sure there’s much leadership in any organisation.