Advice on a difficult management situation....

Hi everyone, I would really appreciate your advice on this challenging situation I'm currently experiencing.

I've been at my job for 10 months, and for the most part, I've not enjoyed it. It was labelled as something that it's not - it's a delivery/operational role which said strategy on the tin. The programmes aren't run particularly well, and I've felt the unnecessarily tight timescales, and constant changes to the programme, haven't allowed anyone on the team to do their best work. Another person left because of stress, and one more felt they needed to change projects.

Anyway, my annual performance review came around, and we receive feedback from everyone in the team we've worked with. In summary, mine came back showing that I deliver high-quality work, have a great attitude and am always keen to learn, but need to be more proactive in problem-solving. I agreed with my line manager that I'm a consistently high performer with some development goals in terms of proactively tackling problems, rather than delivering on existing problems to a high standard. This then went to the senior management team (only one of whom had worked with me, and then at a distance) for review, and they came back to my manager. They broadly said (nothing more than this): "He needs to decide whether this work is for him. If he does, then he needs a lot of support to develop strategy skills. If not then we'll support him to find somewhere else." I was shocked, and I am amazed to have been treated like this. My manager agreed and said there was very little in my feedback, and that if this is the case it should have been brought up beforehand.

Now apparently the onus is on me to have a conversation with the senior management to iron this out. Does anyone have any advice on this? I'm still pretty shocked and processing the whole thing, but it's made me feel that I don't really want to work there.

So much jargon..... proactively deliver the deliverables on the development goals in unison with team synergy to tackle problems in the highest possible standard to meet the company strategy and goals of synergy of customer deliverables satisfaction of 100%.

Sorry I'm teasing you a little. My point is that keep your language for reviews in human speak and not corporate jargon. Might be less misunderstanding involved. What I got from your review is that you don't address existing issues properly. Management response was either start fixing that or get out.

You don't seem happy with them, they don't seem all that happy with you...

Perhaps look for a new job?

Editing to add this: the onus is never on you to iron anything out with upper management. You do what you can do with your job, and they either see it or they don't. If your manager told you to work it out with his bosses...shame on him. That's literally part of his job.

You've been given an ultimatum. They think you need too much babying, and they've shown you the door. But maybe they dont want to terminate you, in some countries terminations can be a big hassle. If your in a position to leave this job, I would do so. If your skin is thick, and you can stomach lingering in a space in which your not welcome, encouraged to dismiss yourself, Well, stick around. Otherwise, salvage the last shard of dignity you have, and fire them as your employer

Anyway, my annual performance review came around, and we receive feedback from everyone in the team we've worked with. In summary, mine came back showing that I deliver high-quality work, have a great attitude and am always keen to learn, but need to be more proactive in problem-solving. I agreed with my line manager that I'm a consistently high performer with some development goals in terms of proactively tackling problems, rather than delivering on existing problems to a high standard. This then went to the senior management team (only one of whom had worked with me, and then at a distance) for review, and they came back to my manager. They broadly said (nothing more than this): "He needs to decide whether this work is for him. If he does, then he needs a lot of support to develop strategy skills. If not then we'll support him to find somewhere else."

At first, I thought the comment from the senior management team was very vague. But then I realized that the underlying issue seems to be the same as that which your coworkers brought up: problem solving. Your coworkers feel that you're great in a crisis situation but not so good at preventing the crisis from happening in the first place (strategy). You either don't notice when a problem is developing, or perhaps you just prefer to deal with issues as they arise. An analogy could be bypass surgery versus preventative care measures (modifying your diet and exercising, etc.). The company prefers the preventative care route, but you keep choosing bypass surgery.

In that light, I can understand why senior management might think that you haven't decided whether this work is 'for' you or not.

It could also be that you are not properly identifying the most critical problems.