I’m going to echo a couple of others here, but LW, there are a lot of really important details we’re missing here, and while I am loathe to just assume that you’re deserving of the PIP, I’d say you really need to dig into the meat of the issue per Alison’s advice and more. I’d also like to backtrack just a little and dig into your letter.
“Many of the other candidates voiced dissatisfaction with my promotion, resulting in a senior leader sending a group email saying that the process was handled incorrectly.” First off, let’s get this senior leader sorted. Are they a senior leader within your direct reporting group, or outside of it? In your department/area, or something higher, such as a C-suite? That can make a huge difference in how things are handled.
“I think this unintentionally created division and distrust between management and direct reports. In my first six months I raised concerns that the team didn’t trust me or communicate professionally with me. This was chalked up to differences in communication style and I was threatened with a performance improvement plan.” <- That last bit concerns me. I don’t misdoubt that a group email would have the potential to create division and distrust, but threatening with a PIP is a huge red flag in more ways than one. Professional communication is critical here, as is trust, but what’s concerning to me is that there’s very little insight into your management style, which I’ll get into a little bit deeper here in a bit. Differences in communication are coachable, not fireable, unless your communication is much more severe.
“At the same time, there was new process overload and many people quit.” Could you give a little more detail on the new process overload? If many people are quitting due to the process becoming/being insane, that’s not on you and shouldn’t reflect as such.
“Recently I gave out realistic performance evals and one particularly influential (think gossipy) report was told they needed improvement. She stated that she agreed, but then requested a transfer through the senior leader. Following this, my other entry-level employees, including one completely new hire (who spent a lot of time with said influential report), began to complain directly to the senior leader.”
Hoo boy. I’m getting the sense that ‘realistic’ has a distinctly “I tell it like it is” vibe, and as a new manager, that is not a good method to take for evals. In fact, the only time realistic is really suitable is for very, very bad issues (See many of the ‘Wait, What?!?’ letters that Alison’s received over the years.) However, aiming ‘gossipy’ at a direct report who is seen as very influential is also very troubling; she may have agreed that she needed improvement, but to request a transfer through the senior leader, that tells me that she might have felt uncomfortable under your management.
“Now I’m being placed on a performance improvement plan for negative attitude despite never being offered any formal training or coaching. All of this is being handled by the senior leader who is not my manager.”
So, no formal training or coaching is a bad look for the company, but the being offered part is critical to me, as is the senior leader. If they are not your manager, then where is your manager in all this? Who is your grand boss? And something to take to heart is this: what questions have you been asking since you started managing, to your boss and/or grandboss? Management skill is a tricksy thing to learn, I’ll be the first to admit, but ‘PIP for negative attitude’ tells me quite a little bit about how you’ve been approaching this promotion. As others have mentioned above, what sort of training have you undertaken yourself, if any? Have you paid attention to your manager’s style of managing, or that senior leader’s? ‘Negative attitude’ covers a lot of things, but most often I’ve seen it used when someone is not reading their team correctly, and again, that is coachable, so long as you are willing to learn.
“As a new manager, I have to know, is this common in management? I have interviews for other management positions, but I’m not sure I want to proceed if office politics are always like this.”
Depending on the details, this answer could swing in a few ways.
“Do entry-level employees typically reach out to freely to and so easily sway senior leadership?”
Typically? No. Which makes me very, very curious as to where your manager is in all this, their boss, and exactly how or why you were promoted in the first place. This is going to sound very harsh, but…frankly, you were, based on your details, managing extremely poorly. We don’t get many details excepting a senior leader in charge of things, who is not your manager, a direct report who is ‘gossipy’ but influential, requesting a transfer after a ‘realistic’ eval. We see that you were threatened with a PIP for ‘differences in communication’, and then placed on a PIP for ‘negative attitude’, all of which speaks to a management style that is frustrating at best, and horrid at worst.
And you may be none of these things at all! For that, I do apologize. But I’ll be blunt; without more details in order to flesh out the advice, I don’t think you should continue seeking managerial jobs. Management of people is all about three key things; adaptivity, compassion, and communication. You’ll need to adapt to situations easily, have compassion for your reports, and communicate effectively in order to succeed in your job. This means a certain sort of level-headedness with common sense, and kindness without losing your boundaries.
It’s friggin’ hard, but it’s rewarding in its own right. But it absolutely requires learning, either through training you seek out or training you’re given, and if your company truly does not have a training program, then that is something for your exit interview to push. I truly do hope that the lack of details and wording is due to both wanting to remain anonymous and not knowing how to say things, and I hope that your PIP is short, even if it does mean that you’re fired at the end. If there is coaching, take it. If there are classes, take them. Reach out to your manager and insist on a discussion, about ALL of this. For your own sake if nothing else.